It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of comrade Benon Sevan, a longstanding and meritorious member of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, which occurred yesterday, 4 October, in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Our devoted friend was born on 18 December 1937, in Nicosia, Cyprus. He was among the distinguished graduates (1958) of the AGBU Melkonian Educational Institution.
He received his higher education by attending Columbia University in New York, from which he earned the degree of Bachelor of Arts in general national history (with an emphasis in philosophy). Later, from the same university he also earned a postgraduate certificate in the field of international relations.
In 1965 he was admitted to permanent service with the United Nations. Conscientious and diligent, thanks to his sustained efforts, he successively earned promotions in post and responsibilities. As an official observer and supervisor sent by the U.N., he brought to a successful conclusion a number of internationally important missions.
As secretary of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, as well as of numerous intergovernmental and professional bodies, and as special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General, for many years he successfully led a great many prestigious missions to politically tense and highly sensitive situations in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other countries of the Near and Far East.
As Executive Director, he also undertook and carried out the administration, coordination and supervision of the U.N. Iraq Programme, through which humanitarian assistance valued at 31 billion dollars was allocated from 1997 to 2004.
Despite the fact that, by virtue of his circumstance as a high-ranking official, he had frequent and prolonged missions, he had permanently maintained his direct link with Armenian reality and in particular with the AGBU, toward which his many years of devotion had earned him election and service for two terms also as a full member of the Union’s Central Board of Directors.
After being called to retirement from his some 40 years of meritorious service with the U.N., he had settled in his birthplace, Cyprus.
But, independently of all this, since 1958 comrade Benon had been one of the faithful, disciplined and exemplary members of the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, being continuously not only the proud bearer of the ADL’s creed and sacred national principles, but also their unwavering implementer.
In appreciation of his many years of devoted and model national and party service, the ADL Central Board had in January 2026 honored comrade Benon Sevan with a special Certificate of Honor.
“May the memory of the righteous be blessed.”
CENTRAL BOARD OF THE ARMENIAN DEMOCRATIC LIBERAL PARTY
