WASHINGTON—On May 10, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that all properties for the planned Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial must revert to the Cafesjian Family Foundation by May 23, court papers indicate.
The ruling comes after the court ruled in favor of the CFF on January 26 in a bitter lawsuit with the Armenian Assembly of America.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also denied a motion by the Assembly for a new trial after it lost the initial case.
“I welcome the court’s concluding verdict that finally frees us all to build this long-awaited museum and memorial about the fact and ongoing consequences of the Armenian Genocide,” CFF chairman Gerard L. Cafesjian told the Armenian Reporter, commenting on the verdict.
“Thankfully, this case is finally over,” CFF counsel, John B. Williams, told the Armenian Reporter. “The properties have to be transferred to CFF in the next two weeks. That is what we have all been fighting for. We hope that the Assembly leadership will be willing to amicably resolve the few loose ends that remain.”
CFF board member Ross Vartian reiterated the call to the leadership of the Armenian Assembly to “cease blocking the project and instead to abide by the May 9 ruling ordering the transfer of all properties to the CFF no later than May 23, 2011,” according to the Reporter.
“Further delay serves no constructive purpose,” Vartian added in a comment to the Reporter, which is published by Cafesjian.
The ruling is the final judgment in the case.
I am glad to see that justice was finally served. Armenian Assembly has been working against Armenian interests for years. This was another effort to stop the Genocide Museum from being built. We may finally see the Armenian Genocide Museum open its doors in Washington DC.
What is really needed is an Armenian Community Center where Armenians of all political and religious confessions can meet and work together. I hope they’ll have space for that too…
This is Embarassing. I am sick and tired of these schisms among Armenians preventing efficient progress and the realization of commendable initiatives.
If this ruling truly enables the building of the museum, then perhaps something will be salvaged from this situation. I find no solace, however, in the ability of our community to find new ways to stay splintered. Our political parties, our churches, our philanthropic orgamization and now CFF vs. the Assembly. Although I have questions on the Assemblies practices in the last few years, the attacks on the Assembly in this post serve no useful purposefor the cause that we all claim is our raison d’etre. Why is it so difficult for us to know when advocacy becomes parochial.
The irony is that all the protagonists claim to speak for the interests of Armenians ; while antagonizing elements of that same people. Sometimes the interests of the Armenian people can best be served by using our influence to bring us together; rather than using to futher the influence of our segment.
When we learn not to neutralize our talents by working against each other, our power is incredible.When we internalize the hypocracy of our disunity, our credibility and ability to lead our people forward increases. Let us pray that the CFF/Assembly skirmish is over and for that matter theh countless others examples where we have taken advocacy of a means and confused it with the end.
What happened?
When some Armenians decide to sell their souls to the devil instead of keeping the Armenian national interests in mind, this happens. Fortunately there are not too many of them. But the ones who are out there are very persuasive and disguise their agenda under a pro Armenian façade. They are alive and well in the AAA, the universities and communities. I even heard the MC, a prominent academician, in a recent April 24 demonstrations saying in his closing statement that we need research and collaboration between the Armenian and Turkish intellectuals as a starting point to overcome the differences. Is this a veiled attempt at sowing the seed and reserecting the historic committee that is being proposed by Turkey? This was in huge contrast to Dr. Hovanessian’s moving speech before him. If you trace the money you will see who is controlling them. Then there are some gullible Armenians who cannot see what is behind the veneer and fall for this advertising. This is when you have a chiasm. If AAA did not have a destructive agenda, the law suit would not have happened and the issues would have been resolved quickly and we would have had already built the museum. This fight was a real shame. By the way, some of the people involved in the law suit on the AAA side were the members of Turkish Armenian Reconcilliation Committee (TARC) in the 1990s. Go figure!! Are we so blind with short memories?
Armenian nationalism is being killed little by little and there is no one to defend it. The only organization that comes close to defending and promoting Armenian Nationalism is ARF and people like Harout Sassounian, Dr. Hovanessian, etc. Even though I do not agree with ARF’s political views and policies I do value their nationalistic approach.
I stand corrected TARC was created in July of 2001 and not in 1990s.
It is absolutely shameful and very dissapointing to go through this lawsuit and loose so much time.. because two groups could not find common ground and instead of working together one pastering and violating rules…
Hents dra hamar el menq hayers chenq karoxanum successful linenq.. vorovhetev menq misht mer amenavat tshnaminner enq.. yes chem haskanum inchi chenq karoxanum MIASIN u TIKUNQ TIKUNQ tvats ashxatenq u arach gnanq.. shat xelatsi enq bayts es mer arandznatsuma mez shat shatxangaruma..
I am absolutely thrilled to know thought that our Museum will finally get built… Astvats ta vor amen inch lav gna sranits heto…
Gayane