99 - all you should know about the Genocide April, 2014 | Page 18
Early sketches of the memorial complex
How and why was the decision made to build a
Party narrates in his memoirs how Zarobyan
memorial complex to the victims of the Genocide?
met Lebanese-Armenian social activist Andranik
Tzarukyan in 1962 and discussed the issue of
The name of the Dashnaks was used to convince Moscow
constructing a memorial complex. “The plans for
The need for a Genocide memorial complex had
building a memorial complex are not subject to
already become the subject of discussion in the
publication yet. The Central Committee is not
early 60s, when Yakov Zarobyan became the
against the idea in principle, but is cautious, and
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the
is trying to find methods that will not impact the
Armenian Communist Party. He was from Ardvin
foreign policy of the USSR.” (Karlen Dallakyan,
by birth and when the Turks occupied it in 1914,
Memoirs: People, Events, Thoughts, Yerevan,
he and his family migrated to Ukraine. Karlen
1998, page 62).
Dallakyan, Head of the International Relations
On July 16, 1964, a top secret letter was sent
Sub-section in the AgitProp Section of the
to the Presidium of the Armenian Communist
Central Committee of the Armenian Communist
Party about marking the 50 th anniversary of the