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Zoryan Institute of Canada, Inc.
255 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, Canada M3B 3H9
Tel: 416-250-9807
Fax: 416-512-1736
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Contact: Megan Swan
April 22, 2008
Roger W. Smith of Zoryan Institute Honored by the President of Armenia
Yerevan, Armenia-Today the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, signed
a decree to award Roger W. Smith the Movses Khorenatsi medal "for his
considerable contribution to the international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide." The Khorenatsi medal is the Republic of Armenia’s
highest award presented by the president to people who have
significantly contributed to the advancement of Armenian culture.
Roger W. Smith is Professor Emeritus of Government at the College of
William and Mary in Virginia, where he taught political philosophy for
thirty-four years and the comparative study of genocide for twenty. A
pioneer and major authority on the subject of genocide, Smith has
written and lectured widely on its nature, history, and prevention, and,
in particular, on denial of the Armenian Genocide. He was a co-founder
of the International Association of Genocide Scholars in 1994. He joined
the Zoryan Institute’s Academic Board of Directors in 1988, and has been
its Chairman since 2004.
In response to receipt of the Khorenatsi medal, Roger Smith
acknowledged, "I am deeply honored by this award and will continue to
promote international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The tide of
denial is turning: the world is increasingly recognizing the Genocide,
in public statements, the media, and scholarship. Civil society in
Turkey is also moving toward taking the historical events as reality,
and the denial as an evasion of political responsibility. The struggle
for truth goes on, but there are grounds for hope."
Prof. Vahakn Dadrian, Director of Genocide Research at the Zoryan
Institute, remarked, "Only a scant number of people have been honored
with the Khorenatsi medal, the highest cultural award of the Republic of
Armenia; and nearly all of them have been Armenians. Therefore, this
presidential act of recognition has the imprint of exceptional value.
Prof. Roger Smith amply deserves this accolade of high esteem on account
of his manifold contributions to the field of genocide studies, with a
special focus on denial, as it relates to the Armenian Genocide. His
steady stewardship of Zoryan’s Genocide and Human Rights University
Program, a yearly, intense, summer course on the topic of genocide, is
such as to accent the value of these contributions."
In addition to his teaching and public lecturing, some of Professor
Smith’s many contributions to the international affirmation of the
Armenian Genocide include the following: in 1995, along with Robert Jay
Lifton and Eric Markusen, he exposed the activities of the Turkish
Embassy in Washington in promoting denial of the Armenian Genocide among
American scholars; in 2000, he gave testimony before the U.S. Congress
relating to the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H. Res. 596); he helped
establish the Genocide and Human Rights University Program in
Minneapolis and Toronto; he helped organize the international conference
on genocide in Yerevan on the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in 2005; the same year, he wrote a public letter to the Prime Minister
of Turkey regarding alternatives to a joint historians’ commission; he
is a co-founder of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International
Journal; and he has published numerous studies on genocide, its denial,
and especially denial of the Armenian Genocide.
Greg Sarkissian, President of the Zoryan Institute, commented, "I am
deeply appreciative of the President of Armenia bestowing this well
deserved honor on our Chairman, who has been a guiding light for the
institute over the past 20 years, and especially since his tenure as
Chairman. Not only has he expanded Zoryan’s vision, activities and
engagement with other academic institutions around the world, but he has
also been personally involved in the directing and teaching of his
beloved university program."
The Zoryan Institute, parent organization of the International Institute
for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the International Institute
for Diaspora Studies, co-publisher of Genocide Studies and Prevention:
An International Journal and Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational
Studies, is the first non-profit, international center devoted to the
research and documentation of contemporary issues with a focus on
Armenian social, political and cultural life, with the concern for the
human rights of all. For more information please contact the Zoryan
Institute by email [email protected] or telephone (416)
250-9807.