December 16, 1999

Washington, DC-The Armenian National Institute (ANI) Academic Council joined ANI Board of Governors members and ANI staff at the Institute's Washington, DC office December 5, to develop the Institute's plans for 2000 and to review the current year's activities.

Attendees resolved to increase educational efforts, convene conferences, develop publications on the Armenian Genocide, and expand ANI's web site, www.armenian-genocide.org, dedicated to providing bibliographic, documentary, and visual materials on the Genocide.

Attending the meeting were Academic Council Chairman Richard Hovannisian (UCLA), Council members Peter Balakian (Colgate), Robert Melson (Purdue), William Parsons (USHMM), Christopher Simpson (American University), ANI Board of Governors Chairman Robert A. Kaloosdian, Board of Governors member Carolyn Mugar, ANI Director Rouben Adalian and ANI Director of Legal Affairs Jacob Toumayan. Academic Council member Claire Mouradian was in Washington, DC at the ANI offices for consultations and to make recommendations prior to the Council meeting.

"We are pleased with the broadening scope of ANI's activities and shall continue our endeavors to make known the lessons of the Armenian Genocide and to gain universal affirmations of this crime against humanity," said Hovannisian. "Our Council's decision to pursue a multifaceted plan of action for next year attests to the Council's confidence in the potential of the Armenian National Institute."

The Council expressed particular concern for preserving archival material-both written and oral-on the Armenian Genocide and recommended that next year the Institute begin developing database projects to organize and preserve Genocide documentation. Levon Avdoyan of the Library of Congress and Adrian Parsegian, Director of the Armenian Educational Council, attended the meeting to consult with Council members on the physical preservation of historic materials documenting the Armenian Genocide.

"I am pleased with the superb work of the Academic Council and how this compliments the pioneering analysis embarked upon by the ANI legal program," said Kaloosdian.

Hovannisian noted ANI's progress in 1999 in all of its program areas:

ANI sponsored the April Conference in Yerevan on "The Armenian Genocide, Henry Morgenthau, and the American Response." Conference participants included the grandson and namesake of US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, prominent Armenian and American scholars, US Ambassador to Armenia Michael Lemmon, representatives of the US Holocaust Council, Kitty Dukakis and Diane Asadorian and officials from ANI and other genocide-related organizations in the United States.

ANI worked on Armenian Genocide archival research projects in half a dozen countries. Tens of thousands of users visited ANI's web site during the year.

The prestigious Rockefeller Foundation awarded ANI a grant to collect and document the cultural legacy of the Armenian Genocide as is reflected in major works of art.

ANI representatives were instrumental in helping the Massachusetts Department of Education to formulate its genocide curriculum guidelines.

And with the hiring of Jacob Toumayan, Esq. as Legal Affairs Director, ANI added staff to expand the Institute's legal research and education program.

The Armenian National Institute is dedicated to the study, research, and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.