GENOCIDE SCHOLAR ROGER SMITH DONATES PERSONAL LIBRARY TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM OF AMERICA

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.10.2009 18:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Roger Smith, professor emeritus of government at
the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and a
co-founder and past president of the International Association of
Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has donated his personal library of books
on the subject of genocide to the Armenian Genocide Museum of America
(AGMA).

In making this gift, Dr. Smith shared the following thoughts: "I had
long been involved with various Armenian scholarly organizations,
had given talks about the Genocide, and especially denial, to many
Armenian community groups, but I had also been deeply committed to
educating a new generation of scholars who could carry on the work
begun by some of us twenty-five years ago. I offered my collection of
books to the Armenian Genocide Museum of America to provide materials
that could help educate scholars and policy makers about the Genocide,
but also as a kind of fulfillment, and continuation, of my association
with a people whose cause I had come to care about deeply."

Trustee of the museum and chairman of its building and operations
committee Van Z. Krikorian welcomed the gift as a valuable addition
to the resources being assembled to create a state-of-the-art museum
facility in the nation’s capital.

"As an educator and as a human rights advocate, Dr. Smith has
selflessly dedicated his time to speak on the Armenian Genocide at
international conferences, in lecture halls and in the classroom,"
Krikorian said. "In 2000 he was invited by the House International
Affairs Committee to testify in Congress about the Armenian Genocide
resolution then under consideration, and all Armenians owe him our
gratitude for that and so much more. We are so very grateful to him
for his generosity and express our deep appreciation for his strong
support."