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ANCA CALLS ON U.N. TO OVERRIDE DECISION TO CLOSE RWANDA GENOCIDE EXHIBIT
Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 13 2007
YEREVAN, April 12. /ARKA/. One of the biggest Armenian lobbyist
organizations in the USA Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
calls upon the U.N. to reverse its recent decision to close a major
exhibit on the Rwanda Genocide.
ANCA reported that the U.N. made the decision due to the Turkish
government's objection over a portion of the display that referenced
the Armenian Genocide.
"Armenian American community's profound disappointment over the
decision to allow the Turkish government to delay the exhibit,"
said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, in a letter sent today to Kiyotaka
Akasaka, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information.
"The exhibit intended to help ensure that the lessons of the Rwanda
Genocide are used to help prevent future genocides," the letter said.
Hachikian stressed that the dismantling of the exhibit represents "a
troubling retreat from the founding principles of the United Nations".
"Turkey's protest over the exhibit, very unfortunately, undermined
the credibility of the United Nations on a central issue of our time -
ending forever the cycle of genocides," he said.
The Rwanda Genocide exhibit was planned to be held in the
U.N. Headquarters in New York, however, it was delayed due to Turkish
objections over the exhibit's historically accurate mention of the
Armenian Genocide and the conclusion made by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish
lawyer who credited with coining the word genocide, 'urged the League
of Nations to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes.
Earlier, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian seriously condemned
the UN's decision. "It is not enough that the Turkish Government
thinks it can conceal its own history from its people, and now the
campaign of keeping silence and distortion of the facts has gone
so far that it breaks the initiative of opening genocide exhibit on
"Lessons of the Rwanda Genocide," Oskanian's comment ran.
Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 13 2007
YEREVAN, April 12. /ARKA/. One of the biggest Armenian lobbyist
organizations in the USA Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
calls upon the U.N. to reverse its recent decision to close a major
exhibit on the Rwanda Genocide.
ANCA reported that the U.N. made the decision due to the Turkish
government's objection over a portion of the display that referenced
the Armenian Genocide.
"Armenian American community's profound disappointment over the
decision to allow the Turkish government to delay the exhibit,"
said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, in a letter sent today to Kiyotaka
Akasaka, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information.
"The exhibit intended to help ensure that the lessons of the Rwanda
Genocide are used to help prevent future genocides," the letter said.
Hachikian stressed that the dismantling of the exhibit represents "a
troubling retreat from the founding principles of the United Nations".
"Turkey's protest over the exhibit, very unfortunately, undermined
the credibility of the United Nations on a central issue of our time -
ending forever the cycle of genocides," he said.
The Rwanda Genocide exhibit was planned to be held in the
U.N. Headquarters in New York, however, it was delayed due to Turkish
objections over the exhibit's historically accurate mention of the
Armenian Genocide and the conclusion made by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish
lawyer who credited with coining the word genocide, 'urged the League
of Nations to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes.
Earlier, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian seriously condemned
the UN's decision. "It is not enough that the Turkish Government
thinks it can conceal its own history from its people, and now the
campaign of keeping silence and distortion of the facts has gone
so far that it breaks the initiative of opening genocide exhibit on
"Lessons of the Rwanda Genocide," Oskanian's comment ran.