AGMA AND NEAR EAST FOUNDATION SIGNED AGREEMENT OF COOPERATION
PanARMENIAN.Net
19.06.2008 19:22 GMT+04:00
The Armenian Genocide Museum of America (AGMA) and the Near East
Foundation signed an agreement of cooperation on June 12 at the
Foundation’s international headquarters in New York City, the Armenian
Assembly of America told PanARMENIAN.Net.
Signing the agreement on behalf of the two organizations were Van
Z. Krikorian, AGMA Trustee and Building and Operations Committee
Chairman, and Shant Mardirossian, Near East Foundation Board Chairman.
Also present at the signing were Near East Foundation President
Alexander Papachristou, Dr. Rouben Adalian, Director of the AGMA, and
Dr. Hayk Demoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
in Yerevan, Armenia.
"This agreement opens a treasure trove of historical Armenian Genocide
era documents and artifacts for use in the museum’s exhibits,"
Krikorian said. "We are very pleased to be forging a partnership
with the Near East Foundation to educate the public on one of the
most significant periods of both Armenian and American history." The
Armenian Genocide Museum of America is slated to open in 2010 in
Washington, DC.
"The archives of the Near East Foundation house thousands of documents
which exemplify the first international humanitarian undertaking
of this sort by the American people," Mardirossian said. "Not only
do the archives tell us the stories of countless Armenian orphans,
but they deliver them through the journals, diaries, and writings of
the Near East Relief workers.
This museum, in the heart of Washington, DC, will serve as a tribute
to their heroic efforts."
The Near East Foundation is the successor organization to the
American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, which was founded
in 1915 and later incorporated as Near East Relief in 1919 by an act
of Congress. Near East Relief established and operated orphanages,
hospitals, and schools throughout the Balkans, Caucasus, and the Near
East to ease the suffering of the Armenian Genocide survivors seeking
refuge from the Ottoman Empire.
"Near East Relief was at the forefront of America’s efforts to
respond to the human suffering that occurred in the wake of the
Armenian Genocide," Krikorian said. "Armenians in the United States
and all over the world benefited directly or indirectly from this
monumental undertaking."
According to Near East Foundation records, from 1915 to 1930 the
Near East Relief administered $117 million worth of assistance and
is credited with saving a million lives and providing vocational
training to 132,000 Armenian orphan children.
"Millions of dollars were raised through appeals in the media,
at public rallies, in churches and synagogues, and in schools,"
Mardirossian said. "Not only were funds raised, but hundreds of Near
East Relief volunteers were on the ground ministering to the suffering
survivors of the Genocide, delivering food, clothing, and materials,
but most of all comfort and hope. Many risked their lives and several
gave their lives for this noble cause. Their stories and memories
should be preserved as an example of the American spirit."
This agreement with the Near East Foundation is the second cooperative
agreement AGMA has forged in recent months. In April, the museum
entered into a partnership with the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in Yerevan, Armenia.
The resources and expertise from the genocide museum in Armenia and
the valuable archival materials from Near East Relief will complement
other artifacts and documents to be incorporated in the AGMA exhibits,
which are being designed by the preeminent Washington, DC area firm
of Gallagher & Associates.
The museum will be housed in the historic National Bank Building
in Washington, DC, at 14th and G Streets, NW, just blocks from the
White House. When completed, it will be the first international class
museum in the Armenian Diaspora dedicated to preserving and honoring
the memory of the victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide. From
1915-1923 a centrally-planned, government-directed campaign subjected
the Armenian population in Turkey to deportation, expropriation,
abduction, torture, starvation, and outright killings. An estimated
1.5 million Armenians perished and tens of thousands became widowed,
orphaned and homeless.
Today, the Near East Foundation operates development projects in
seven countries in the Middle East and Africa and is planning a
project in Armenia. In 1930, the organization re-defined itself. It
gave the schools, orphanages, hospitals, and other facilities that
it had founded to the countries where it operated, and it became a
pioneer in the field of economic development. Current projects include
agricultural innovation to combat climate change in Mali and Egypt,
reforming primary education to include girls in Morocco, and assisting
Iraqi refugees to support themselves in new communities in Syria and
Jordan. The 100-member field staff all work in their own countries,
so the Near East Foundation supports local professionalism while
helping the region’s poorest people.
"We are proud to continue the tradition of American assistance to
communities in peril in the Middle East and Africa," said NEF President
Papachristou. "We rely fully on the expertise and dedication of our
colleagues who know best how to organize these communities to solve
their own challenges."
The agreement between the AGMA and the Near East Foundation also
anticipates the promotion of each other’s programs and projects.