The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) has announced that the notorious Ambassador John Evans will headline its 2013 Advocacy Week.
Evans, formerly the United States Ambassador to Armenia, gained notoriety in 2005 by publicly dissenting from the stated policy of the George W Bush and previous U.S. Administrations on the 90-year-old issue of the Armenian Genocide.
A veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, Evans had no Armenian ancestors or family connections, but over the course of his historical studies and diplomatic career, became convinced that a gross injustice was being perpetrated against the Armenians through the denialist policies of the Turkish government and the U.S. government’s tacit acceptance of them.
He decided to take a measured public stand, but then paid for his “heresy” by being dismissed from his post and forced into early retirement, although not without a fight over the issue in the U.S. Senate.
Over the course of his thirty-five-year career, Evans served with distinction in diplomatic posts in Tehran, Prague, Moscow, Brussels (NATO), St. Petersburg and Washington, reaching the rank of Minister-Counselor.
A native of Williamsburg, Virginia, educated at Yale and Columbia, he is an avid student of Russian history who devoted a sabbatical year to investigating the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the setting in which the tragic events of 1915 occurred.
ANC Australia Executive Director, Vache Kahramanian said: “We are delighted to have Ambassador Evans join us in Australia. His experiences and knowledge will provide an important insight.”
Ambassador Evans will visit Parliament House in Canberra with an ANC Australia delegation, as well as take part in a number of events during his visit to Australia. His visit highlight will be delivering the keynote address at the ANC Australia Annual Banquet
