ANNOUNCEMENTS: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MONUMENT IN LARNACA

05-06 -2008

The Committee of the Kalaydjian Foundation with a bilingual
announcement (Greek, English) thank the President of the Republic
for his tireless efforts in implementing the Monument project, They
also thank both the Mayor of Larnaca Mr. Andreas Moyseos and the
Larnaca Municipal Council for their decision to allow, on exception,
the erection of the monument on Larnaca’s seafront.

And finally they thank the Ambassador of the Republic of
Armenia Mr. Vahram Kazhoyan, as well as the monument’s architects
Messrs. Angelos Demetriou and Michael Thrassou, the renowned sculptor
Mr. Georgios Kalakallas, and everyone involved in the implementation
of the project.

Read the whole announcements in Greek (pdf) or in English (pdf)

Meanwhile the Armenian representative of the Cyprus Parliament,
Mr. Vartkes Mahdessian, with a press release dated 28 May 2008 thanks
the Cyprus government and the Larnaca municipality for the Larnaca
marina Armenian Genocide Monument.

With another Armenian press release dated 29 of May 2008 he mentions
that his only involvement with this project was at a meeting on 13
July 2007 after an invitation by the Larnaca municipitality.

At the meeting when he asked about the cost, he was informed that the
cost of the monument, which will be covered by the Cyprus Government,
had risen to CY£102,000 (plus Taxes), while the initial estimate
was CY£70,000.

He was also informed that the monument would be sculptured by a
Greek sculpture from Greece, while the inscription would be in four
languages (Armenian, Greek, Turkish and English) and prepared in
Armenia. The content of the inscriptions were presented on paper to
the participants.

During this meeting he expressed strongly his dissatisfaction that
the community was not involved with the project, especially the absent
of the Church. Which were recorded as such in the meetings minutes.

Although the cost of the project, the presence of Mr. Dikran Kalaydjian
and the fact that the sculpturer was not an Armenian were points
that he did not agree, in respect towards his predecessors and the
people who had taken this decisions in the past, he did not mention
his concers.

In the press release, Mr. Mahdessian mentions his utter dislike to
the fact that some people had tried to "personalize" such a "Holy &
historical" monument, such as the direct request of the "Kayadjian
Foundation" to name the surrounding area of the monument "Armenia
square" without following the official protocol for such requests and
the willingness to cover a gap of 16,000 euros with the provision of
adding inscriptions to the monument without the Communities consent.

The whole Greek Press release and the Armenian Press release.

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