Armenian community to work with CMHR staff to tell story of genocide

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This article was published 07/11/2013 (4377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Armenian Canadians signed on with Canadian Museum for Human Rights to share history of their genocide as a way to combat human rights violations in a signing ceremony today.

The event means Armenian-Canadian cultural groups will work with museum staff, exchanging knowledge and expertise to develop educational materials and exhibitions to tell the story of the Armenian genocide.

During and after the First World War, one of the final acts of Ottoman Empire was to target the Armenian population of Turkey for extermination. Some half a million escaped abroad but another one and a half million Armenians were killed.

The genocide is significant not just for the sheer horror of the the genocide but because against persistence denials it happened, a network of Armenian survivors persuaded countries to acknowledge it occurred. That recognition led to the definition of genocide used globally today to define such atrocities.

This is not the first agreement the museum has made to work with cultural groups to highlight human rights abuses.

Two weeks ago the museum made a similar announcement regarding the so-called “Comfort Women” with Chinese and Pilipino Canadians.

Several representatives of the Armenian community in Canada were on hand for the announcement at the downtown offices of the museum, including the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Canada, His Excellency Armen Yeganian and the family of one survivor of the genocide who settled in Canada, Jack and David Garabed, sons of Harry Garabed from Killarney.