President Sarkissian handed unique photos of the Armenian Genocide to the National Archive
President Armen Sarkissian presented unique documents to the National Archives of Armenia (ANA) during today’s visit. As Panorama.am leant from ANA Director Amatuni Virabyan, the president handed photos about the Armenian Genocide that have been preserved by German prolific author and a human rights activist Armin Wegner
“The president donated the photos to the National Archive several months ago and we decided to publicize the gift today on the occasion of his visit,” Virabyan noted.
The ANA head detailed that the president has presented the original negative of the photos which is made on a thin sheet of glass.
To note, Armin T. Wegner is one of the eyewitnesses of the Armenian Genocide whose photographic collection documented the Armenian massacres and deorptations in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1916. Wegner collected notes, annotations, documents, letters and took hundreds of photographs in the Armenian deportation camps. With the help of foreign consulates and embassies of other countries, he was able to send some of this material to Germany and the United States. In 1919, Wegner's "Open Letter to President Wilson" appealing for the creation of an independent Armenian state was published in Berliner Tageblatt.
In 1968 he received an invitation to Armenia from the Catholicos of All Armenians and was awarded with the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator.