Armenian Orphan Rug display not a message to Turkey: White House

PanARMENIAN.Net - A representative of the U.S. National Security Council refuted Turkish media reports suggesting the display of Armenian Orphan Rug at the White House Visitor Center was a signal directed at Ankara.

“The Ghazir Rug being an item of major historical value, presidential administration was long waiting for an occasion to properly exhibit it,” Ermenihaber quoted the official as saying.

Turkish media was agitated over the White House decision to display the famous rug, construing the fact as a message to Ankara in the light of Washington’s urge to allow anti-Islamic State strikes from Incirlik Air Base.

Earlier, the announcement about the exhibit prompted the Armenian National Committee of America to call on President Obama to characterize the rug in its proper manner.

“If President Obama’s decision to publicly exhibit the Armenian Orphan Rug is to represent a symbol of real progress, the White House Visitor Center Exhibit will clearly and unequivocally reference the still unpunished crime that led to its creation – the Armenian Genocide,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America.

The Ghazir Rug, which is also known as the Armenian Orphan Rug, was a labor of love by orphans who were rescued from the Armenian Genocide by American aid workers as part of the Near East Relief campaign that was mandated by the U.S. President and legislated by Congress in 1915 and 1916 respectively.