Professor Nélida Boulgourdjian, responsible for the issues of the Armenian Genocide Museum in Argentina, head of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration Foundation, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, releasing details from the construction program of the Museum.
-Mrs. Nelida, there were reports recently that the Buenos Aires City Hall approved the construction of the Museum of the Armenian Genocide. But if I am not mistaken, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Museum took place several years ago. There were even talks on the active construction of the building and the opening dates. Can you, please, clarify what process is going on?
-The Foundation of the Armenian Genocide was created in 2008 with the mission of building a museum of the Armenian Genocide and of the Armenian presence in Argentina. Its promoters are Arq. Juan Carlos Toufeksian, Dr. Nélida Boulgourdjian and a group of persons with the same ideas. Since then they made the steps before the Argentine State to obtain the property because they consider that the history of the Armenians in Argentina does not belong only to the Armenian community but to the Argentine society as a whole, of which the descendants of Armenians (third and fourth generation) are part. After arduous efforts, at the national level, in the Legislative and Executive Power and at the level of the city of Buenos Aires, they obtained in 2014, a place of 433 square meters, from the city government, meters, located at the corner of Gurruchaga and Jufré, a few blocks from the Armenian Church and Armenian institution, in the heart of Armenian community life.
The Foundation sought that the assignment should be confirmed by law. For that reason, from that moment they worked in that sense, without starting with the construction of the museum. Finally, on February 28, the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires gave the property by law.
-At what stage is the construction of the building of the Genocide Museum? What works have been carried out so far?
-As explained, we wanted the confirmation by law before the starting of the construction. Besides, during that time the architects and the rest of the volunteers prepared the project and made contacts to interest people in the project. This year, we will begin with the construction for which we will begin to raise funds.
- What works are being done for the collection of exhibits? What are the collection sources of the exhibits?
-So far we have collected photographs that the Armenians brought to Argentina and others that were taken here and that are part of the exhibition we prepared. We presented the first exhibition in 2015 and since then we expanded and presented in different editions (each edition extends the previous one) in official places, such as the Senate of the Nation, the Legislature of the city, etc. Related to the sources we have personal documentation and institutional documentation.
For the library we collected ancient books that people are donating and new books from our own library (Juan Carlos and Nélida) that will be donated to it.
We have also some object that the refugees brought with them.
In this moment we are...
