JOHN EVANS WILL BE PRESENTED WITH DISTINGUISHED HENRY MORGENTHAU AWARD
PanARMENIAN.Net
02.05.2007 18:49 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On May 3rd, in Cambridge Massachusetts, Ambassador
John Marshall Evans will be presented with the distinguished Henry
Morgenthau Award for Meritorious Public Service. The Award is
presented by the Armenian Assembly of America to a public official
who has demonstrated exemplary leadership on behalf of the Armenian
people and nation.
Grandson of the Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time of the
genocide, Henry Morgenthau III will be joined by Samantha Power, the
Pulitzer Prize winning author of "A Problem from Hell: America and
the Age of Genocide" and Professor of Practice of Global Leadership
and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University, for this auspicious occasion honoring Evans for speaking
the truth.
Ambassador Evans is only the third recipient of the Morgenthau
Award. The first U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Harry Gilmore was the
first recipient on June 1, 1996.
President of Armenia Robert Kocharian was awarded the honor on
September 6, 1997.
Ambassador Evans is a true profile in courage. In 2005, while
addressing Armenian-American communities across the country, the
Ambassador re-affirmed the United States record and accurately
described the events that took place from 1915 to 1923 as genocide.
As a result of his public statements, Ambassador Evans’ term of office
was cut short by the Department of State. In addition, the American
Foreign Service Association (AFSA) rescinded its Christian A. Herter
Award for "constructive dissent" which Evans had received for his
proper characterization of the Armenian Genocide. Ambassador Evans
has since retired from the Foreign Service.
"Ambassador Evans is a man of principle and conviction," said Chairman
of the Board of Trustees Hirair Hovnanian. "No one should be penalized
for speaking the truth about the Armenian Genocide, especially a public
official who has the responsibility of representing the United States
abroad," Hovnanian added. "That is not the message our country should
be sending to the rest of the world if we are to remain the bastion
of democracy and freedom for people everywhere," the AAA reports.