In a recent column titled “There is a Time to Sue and a Time to Settle,” I urged the Armenian American community to come together and launch the long-awaited Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial in Washington, located two blocks from the White House.
I made that suggestion after a federal judge ruled that the Cafesjian Family Foundation is the rightful owner of the museum buildings. Many Armenian Americans were hopeful that the court’s verdict would put an end to several years of legal wrangling that delayed the development of the genocide museum and cost millions of dollars in attorney fees.
Although many in the Armenian community welcomed my call for a united effort to make the museum a reality on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian Assembly’s leadership disagreed, and proceeded to appeal the court’s verdict. Of course, the Assembly has the right to appeal, but doing so may not be the right course of action. Continuing the litigation would further delay the creation of an Armenian Genocide Museum in the nation’s capital and undermine not only the interests of the Armenian American community, but also the interests of the Assembly itself.
Members and supporters of the Assembly must be concerned about the insistence of some of their leaders to prolong this legal dispute. It would have been far more preferable to devote their limited resources to expanding the organization’s social and political activities that have been considerably curtailed in recent years because of the economic downturn and the departure of key staff members from its offices in Washington, Los Angeles, and Yerevan. The organization’s finances were also impacted due to the loss of several Assembly donors after some of its leaders got involved in the highly controversial Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC). The Assembly acknowledged that the shortage of funds was the reason for its decision to withdraw from the United Armenian Fund, a coalition of the seven largest Armenian American philanthropic and religious organizations that has provided over $600 million of humanitarian aid to Armenia and Artsakh since the 1988 earthquake.
Under these circumstances, it may be counterproductive for the Assembly’s leaders to spend millions of more dollars to appeal the verdict, particularly since the judge ruled that in addition to paying their own legal expenses, they have to reimburse Gerard Cafesjian for a portion of his attorney fees, which could be a substantial sum. Those funds could be better utilized to re-energize the Assembly’s lobbying work in Washington or to fund other worthy projects, such as the genocide museum.
The Assembly leaders also do not need to waste their efforts by re-trying their legal case in the media. The California Courier received last week a Letter to the Editor signed by a gracious and generous couple who are major supporters of the Armenian Assembly. They were expressing disagreement with my column titled “There is a Time to Sue and a Time to Settle.” Interestingly, parts of this letter bore some similarity to a press release issued by the Assembly a week earlier. In fact, the text reads more like a court brief drafted by an attorney than a letter expressing a reader’s opinion. The letter was sent to 10 Armenian newspapers and websites in the U.S. and Canada, asking them to publish it as a response to my column, which did not appear in some of these news outlets.
I sincerely hope that the Assembly leaders are not engaged in wasteful efforts to conduct letter-writing campaigns in a vain attempt to win a war of words with the media, because there is no point in re-trying a lawsuit in the pages of a newspaper! That issue has already been settled in a court of law by an independent federal judge.
Nevertheless, a hopeful sign emerged last week, buried deep amid the disputes and recriminations. In an “Open Letter,” Hirair Hovnanian, the chairman of the Armenian Assembly, suggested that he “may be able to convince all interested parties to agree not to file an appeal” if Cafesjian were to guarantee the development of the genocide museum.
Since Cafesjian has already made such a commitment in court, the time has come to bury the hatchet, end all lawsuits and appeals, and go on with the important task of forming a pan-Armenian entity that would establish an Armenian Genocide Museum in Washington by April 24, 2015, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Harut Sassounian
The Armenian people will rise to great heights and can even become invincible if it sheds its OCD habit of worrying about personal status and ego, and going after personal gain and distracting bickering stemming from jealousy and mistrust and focuses on what really matters to our nation,
An Armenian Genocide Museum in Washington DC would elevate our people’s dignity and morale, it will serve as an unmatched platform for educating Washington DC visitors as well as the American public at large and raising awareness of the first Genocide of the 20th Century which prompted the actual coining of the term “Genocide” by Lemkin.
That is a legacy worth converging our cumulative cognitive and material resources to realize. Inter bickering stahls our progress, and it should always be kept in check by striving to find better channels of communication with each other.
I think it is counter productive to continue with this pissing contest. Shame on all involved. The Armenian nation deserves better. Let us swallow our personal pride and continue with our nations work. Time is of an essence. Let us dedicate our resources to building a Genocide Museum. This pissing contest will only help our adversaries.
Halleluyah! Some semblance of Unity?
Well said Harut!
Could not agree with you more Mr. Sassounian.
I have thoroughly read both of your articles regarding the Armenian Genocide Museum and the court case that was filed by Armenian Assembly against the Cafesjian Family Foundation. Ultimately, the Armenian Assembly lost the case; the judge was very fair and made an honest decision that most Armenians agree with. I totally agree with you regarding this issue and your wording is perfect; “there is a time to sue and a time to settle.” It is a shame to see two Armenians fighting in court over the Armenian Genocide Museum. What message are we sending to the world, in particular to Turkey with these actions? All the money and energy spent, the time vested in litigation could have been used for the good of Armenia and the Armenian cause. As if this issue was not humiliating enough, we have yet another case pending in regards to the life insurance policy funds that were collected and were to be distributed amongst the various Armenian organizations. We have two Armenian attorneys facing off in court, accusing one another stealing and/or mismanaging money. The court is now asking for all the accounting, records and how the money was distributed. At the time, you wrote an article stating all accounting and records should be publicly available to the Armenian communities. These two individual cases are humiliating to the Armenian people and tarnishes our credibility in the world arena. The last thing we as Armenians can afford is to fight amongst ourselves – shame on all those involved!