PRESS RELEASE                                                                               April 27, 2006

Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: armecon@speakeasy.net ;Web: www.armeniaemb.org

Embassy of Armenia Commemorates Genocide Anniversary With a Remembrance Event, Photo Exhibit

On April 26, 2006, the Embassy of Armenia hosted an event commemorating the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Over 500 Armenian Americans and friends of Armenia, representing the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian-American organizations and individual community members laid flowers and wreaths at the khatchkar located on the Embassy premises.

A joint prayer service for the memory of the Genocide victims was conducted by the pastors of St. Mary’s and Soorp Khatch Armenian Apostolic Churches in Washington, DC.

In his address, Ambassador Tatoul Markarian expressed appreciation for the Genocide recognition efforts by the Armenian Diaspora throughout decades. He noted that the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide remains on Armenia’s foreign policy agenda. Stressing the importance of continuing unified efforts of all the Armenian organizations on this issue, Ambassador Markarian emphasized the significance of existence of the independent Armenian statehood in achieving success in recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Also on April 24, the Embassy unveiled a photo exhibit on the Armenian cultural and historical monuments outside of the modern-day Armenia. The exhibit, prepared by the Research on Armenian Architecture, presents photographic evidence of the systematic campaign to destroy the Armenian cultural legacy in Turkey and Azerbaijan. In his remarks during the opening of the exhibit, Ambassador Markarian expressed appreciation of the efforts to study and collect documental evidence of the Armenian architectural and historical monuments abroad. The Ambassador emphasized the urgency of the need to preserve the Armenian architectural heritage in neighboring countries, noting that this had been once more underscored by the recent barbaric destruction of the Armenian khachkars in Nakhichevan.

The ten-day exhibit has already been attended by hundreds of Armenian-Americans, as well as U.S. officials.