Hagop Andresyan, Vice-Chairman of the ADL Central Board, recently addressed the issue of opening a genocide memorial in Israel during an interview given to “Arevelk”.
Below we present the interview:
-What information do you have about the opening of a genocide memorial in Israel?
I learned about it from “Ramgavar Mamoul”, which stated that during a press conference, Dr. Alexander Tsinker, co-chair of the “Armenia-Israel” international public forum, had announced it.
In general terms, this kind of endeavour is always encouraging; wherever a genocide memorial is placed, it is welcome for us, but in this case there is an important issue that must be noted.
First, the city of Petah Tikva is a second- or third-tier city in Israel, where the number of tourists is small and even locals do not go there; that is, it is a city of lesser importance.
In addition, in Jerusalem, years ago, five khachkars were brought from Armenia as a memorial to the victims of the Genocide, symbolising the five vilayets, and were placed in the courtyard of the Jerusalem Armenian Seminary, which is located opposite the Armenian convent; the location of the khachkars was a prominent spot and was at a point where passers-by and tourists would go by. The khachkars were installed inside the school fence, with the aim that later that part of the fence would be opened and the khachkars would become visible from outside as well. However, unfortunately, to this day the authorities have not permitted that fence to be opened; even arched stones were brought from Armenia to be placed in front of the khachkars, but to this day we have not been able to obtain permission for their installation.
Ultimately, what matters to us is that people see the monument; it is true that we place the khachkar-memorials in memory of our martyrs, but it is very important for us that foreigners also see them and through that path become acquainted with the story of our people’s crucifixion.
-So, in your opinion, is the choice of location wrong?
What I mean is that it is preferable that those people who are working on this project take the choice of location into consideration. The city of Petah Tikva is generally inhabited by Armenians, or half-Armenians, who came from the Soviet Union and Armenia, who say they are Armenians, but we do not know to what extent they are Armenian. Today these Armenians have more authority than we do, who were born here, probably because they form a fairly large number there, and during election campaigns they represent a voting force, and that is why they were able to achieve something like this.
But, as has been announced, the project is still in its initial stage; they still need to raise funds, and it will take a long time before that project becomes a reality.
We must also take another thing into consideration: the state of Israel often does these kinds of things to throw dust in people’s eyes; it is impossible for Israel to do something without a purpose, that is, whenever it has a problem with the Turks and wants to say something to them, it immediately brings up the Armenian question, one or two people make statements, the Turks intervene and the matter is closed. We Armenians have always been the target of these kinds of things, and I personally never submit to these kinds of games and always say, do not use the name of our saints for your political interests.
