HRANT DINK (POSTHUMOUSLY) AND BROTHERS TAVIANI AWARDED ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S PRIZE

Noyan Tapan
Jun 18 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 18, NOYAN TAPAN. "This is for the first time that a
Prize of the President of Armenia is awarded posthumously: it is the
prize awarded to the late Hrant Dink," the Armenian president Robert
Kocahrian said on June 18 during the 2006 award-giving ceremony. In
his words, the death of Hrant Dink is a great loss for the Armenian
people. R. Kocharian assured H. Dink’s family members that "Armenia
is alsways a home for his family."

H. Dink was awarded the President’s Prize for his significant
contributions to historical justice, mutual understanding among
nations, freedom of speech and human rights. R. Kocharian presented
the prize to Mrs. Rakel Dink, Hrant Dink’s widow.

Albert Poghosian, representative of the Robert Poghosian & Sons
Foundation financing the prize, noted that the whole life of Hrant
Dink bore evidence of his courage and sincerity. "By his untiring
activities, he strived to form mutual understanding between the
Armenian and Turkish peoples," he said.

The President’s Prize, in recognition of significant work that
advances knowledge about the Armenian Genocide, has been awarded to
"The Lark Farm", a movie directed by the brothers Paolo and Vittorio
Taviani. Prior to presenting the award to P. Taviani, Robert Kocharian
said: "If we want to have a safer, fairer and more tolerant world,
we must have courage to condemn all the crimes committed in the past,
especially if the matter concerns genocide."

"We have received many awards in our life but this is the most
important one, as it was given not only for a film but also for a
phenomenon which is more than a film," P. Taviani stated. According
to him, the actors speaking different languages were overcome by one
feeling: to remind the world about what happened in 1915 – the great
tragedy of the Armenians.

The Armenian President’s Prizes were also awarded for contributions in
"Technical Sciences and Information Technologies", arts, literature,
humanities, as well as youth prizes were awarded for contributions in
fine arts, cinematography, photography, literature, classic singing
and instrumental performance.

By the resulst of 2006, no prizes were awarded in natural sciences,
medicine and physics.

The founder of the Armenian President’s Prize is the "Hayastan"
All-Armenian Fund.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress