ARMENIAN RELIEF SOCIETY, INC.
Central Office
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown, MA 02472

Tel: 617-926-5892
Fax: 617-926-4855
E-Mail: secretary@ars1910.org

ARS Bestows its "Ararat" Award on Near East Foundation

The program of the ARS Centennial – celebrated on Wednesday, March 10, 2010
in New York City – included the granting of the ARS "Ararat" Award of
Excellence to the Near East Foundation (formerly – Near East Relief) which
was founded 95 years ago, in response to the unprecedented human tragedy
that unfolded in the Near East following the Armenian Genocide. Indeed, it
was, in large part, due to the enormous moral and financial input of the
Near East Relief, that thousands of Armenian orphans and refugees were saved
from certain annihilation in the aftermath of the first genocide of the
20-th century.

In 2003, seven years before its Centenary, the ARS initiated its "Ararat"
Award of Excellence, whose first recipient was Atom Egoyan, the
Canadian-Armenian filmmaker of world renown, whose film of the same name,
"Ararat", exposed to the whole world the horrendous traumatic scars that the
Genocide had left on the mental and spiritual well being of the
post-Genocide Armenian generations.

Four years later, in 2007, Vice-Speaker of Britain’s House of Lords, Lady
Caroline Cox received the "Ararat" Award for loyal support and continuing
assistance to the Armenians of the Nagorno Karabakh enclave during and after
their long struggle for freedom from Azeri oppression. In 1993, the Baroness
had published a book titled "Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno
Karabagh", exposing the genocidal policies of the Azeri governments
implemented against the Armenian population of Artsakh.

"As these three recipients of the ARS "Ararat" Award demonstrate, only
exceptional personalities and organizations – whose benevolent and
humanitarian stance transcends mere rhetoric by translating into concrete
action in support of the Armenian people’s struggle for progress and a
bright future – are considered worthy of this unique Award of Excellence.
Based on this lofty level, the ARS has not made this an annual award,
preferring to hold it for rewarding exceptional acts realized in times of
crises, demanding a special kind of humanitarian commitment on the part of
principled individuals or societies,"- declared Mrs. Vera Tavitian of the
ARS Central Executive Board. "In this year of the 95-th Commemoration of the
Genocide, the ARS wished to grant its "Ararat" Award to a deserving
recipient, such as the Near East Relief, whose caring heart and charitable
hand, extended at a critical time, helped the survival of 130,000
tragedy-struck Armenian children,"- concluded Mrs. Tavitian.

The Near East Relief was created in 1915 in response to an alarming cable
from American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau to the U.S.
Secretary of State stating that the Turkish "destruction of the Armenian
race is progressing rapidly". In 1919 the committee was chartered by
Congress and designated the primary channel for U.S. postwar aid to the Near
East.

Today, its successor, The Near East Foundation, continues its humanitarian
work in the Near East and in Armenia. To see a film on the organization’s
activities – or to read the text of its President, Mr. Shant Mardirossian’s
speech delivered during the ARS Centennial celebration – visit the ARS
website at