Hovnanian urges Cafesjian to build Genocide Museum in Washington as promised

PanARMENIAN.Net - In early May, 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. In addition to the reversion of property, the ruling dismissed all claims launched against Mr. Gerard Cafesjian and CFF by Hirair Hovnanian and his associates, reinstated CFF on the board of the Armenian Genocide Museum & Memorial (AGMM Inc.) and ruled that Mr. Cafesjian is entitled to compensation of his legal fees.

After the court ruling, Hirair Hovnanian addressed an open letter to his opponent Gerard Cafesjian, where he noted that in case Cafesjian fulfils certain conditions, Hovnanian will be able to persuade the interested parties to refrain from submitting further appeals.

The letter reads, “as I look back to the years wasted by the multiple lawsuits that you initiated against the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial (AGMM) and the Armenian Assembly, I note that today you are at the same exact point you were in 2006 when you were in control of the project. At that time, the other AGMM Board Members acquiesced to your plan with our votes - you have it writing.

I chose to write to you in this open forum only after being silent throughout this entire trial, even though you used your media sources to constantly spread false facts and mean spirited articles about me during the trial . As I have said many times, the motivation for my involvement with the project is my belief that building a Genocide museum in our nation’s capital is a noble endeavor for the Armenian people.

Now that you have fought so hard to have all the properties and thus absolute control over the project, it is my hope that you are truly committed to dedicating these properties to the building of an Armenian Genocide museum, as you had promised the Judge and the Armenian people. It is my hope that this project will not suffer the same fate as did the grand vision you had for your art museum in Yerevan which remains to this day unrealized, and that you are even more motivated to complete the Genocide museum on the grand $200 million scale that you have so often spoken about.

Although you were unwilling to guarantee during litigation that these properties will be used solely for a museum, you have an obligation to the Armenian people to build this Genocide museum in accordance with the vision initially espoused and without any conditions. If you had been willing to guarantee this, I may have been able to convince all interested parties to agree not to file an appeal.”

Starting in the year 2000, Mr. Cafesjian initiated a large-scale purchase of a group of buildings located just two blocks from the White House. These included the historic National Bank of Washington building and four adjacent structures.

In 2003, the properties were donated to the newly-established AGMM, Inc. on the condition that they would be developed into the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial by December 31, 2010. Mr. Cafesjian, Mr. Hovnanian, Robert Kaloosdian and others were included on the AGMM, Inc. board as founding members.

According to witness testimony, subsequent efforts to develop the project were stymied by objections from Mr. Hovnanian and Mr. Kaloosdian, leaving the project in a standstill. The court agreed and found that that Mr. Hovnanian and Mr. Kaloosdian were not supportive of Mr. Cafesjian's vision for the project.

On January 26, the judge ruled that the parties' agreement reached in 2003 remained in force and accordingly all the properties donated by Mr. Cafesjian had reverted to CFF as of December 3.