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ARMENIAN ORPHAN RUG TO GO ON DISPLAY AT WHITE HOUSE VISITOR CENTER IN NOVEMBER
Washington Post
Oct 16 2014
By Philip Kennicott October 15 at 5:23 PM
The White House has confirmed that a controversial historical
artifact known as the Armenian Orphan Rug will go on display at
the newly renovated White House Visitor Center next month. The rug,
woven by Armenian orphans in the 1920s and presented to President
Calvin Coolidge in 1925, was a gift thanking the United States for
its role in assisting Armenians after the mass killings and genocidal
relocations at the hands of the crumbling Ottoman Empire a century ago.
The rug had been scheduled to be displayed at a Smithsonian Institution
event in December, but that was canceled suddenly after the White
House, without explanation, declined to release the carpet.
At the time, Armenian American groups speculated that the Turkish
government, which has long resisted acknowledging the events of 1915
as a genocide, was behind the White House's refusal.
In April, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said the White House had
agreed to allow the rug to be seen, but the White House didn't offer
specific details about where or when. With tensions rising between the
United States and Turkey over how best to handle the crisis in Syria,
the decision today still came as a surprise. The U.S. government
has been pressuring Turkey to assist Kurdish forces in their fight
against the Islamic State, while Turkey has tied its participation in
stepped-up action against the extremist group to a firmer U.S. resolve
to remove Turkey's longtime foe, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
from office.
A senior administration official said the timing of the announcement
was unrelated to current events and that the decision was made months
earlier. At issue was where and how to display the object, and there
was concern about the proper care of the valuable carpet. The colorful
textile is approximately 12 by 18 feet, with more than 4 million
knots. It took some 10 months for the orphans, under the protection
of the Near East Relief Society, to make it.
The carpet, originally scheduled to be seen as part of a reception
and book launch last year, will now be displayed as one of three key
objects in an exhibition devoted to gifts thanking the United States
for humanitarian assistance. Included in the display will be a 1930
French vase given to President Herbert Hoover and a work known as
Flowering Branches in Lucite, a gift of the Japanese government after
the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
The new exhibition will somewhat blunt the explosive symbolic power of
the rug's display by contextualizing it with other objects in a show
titled "Thank You to the United States: Three Gifts to Presidents in
Gratitude for American Generosity Abroad."
But Armenian groups will be watching how the rug is displayed and what
action the United States takes in the coming year, which will mark the
100th anniversary of the genocide. Of particular concern is a public
acknowledgment by the United States that the killing and starvation
of the Armenians, which caused an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million
deaths, was technically genocide. Although then-presidential candidate
Barack Obama said he would support such a position, Armenian groups
have criticized him for not explicitly using the word "genocide"
to refer to those events. That dissonance has been particularly
pronounced since last June, when Obama nominated Samantha Power to
be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power, author of the
well-regarded 2002 book "A Problem From Hell," used the term throughout
her history of genocide to refer to the treatment of the Armenians.
Although grateful that the rug will now be seen, Aram S. Hamparian,
executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America,
is concerned that this may be a symbolic gesture meant to appease
the Armenian American community and that 2015 will pass without
the president allowing the U.S. government to formally acknowledge
the genocide.
"We hope the display of this rug will mark real progress, not a
substitute for progress," Hamparian said.
He is also concerned about how the rug will be explained in the
exhibition, and whether information accompanying it will forthrightly
use the word genocide. If the display doesn't speak directly about
the events, he says, the rug's appearance for the first time since
1995 may yet leave a sour taste among many Armenian Americans.
"I would go see it, but it would pain my heart if it was shown in
the context of euphemisms and evasive language," Hamparian said.
The rug will be on display Nov. 18-23.
The Turkish Embassy was not able to immediately comment.
Philip Kennicott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Art and Architecture
Critic of The Washington Post. He has been on staff at the Post since
1999, first as Classical Music Critic, then as Culture Critic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/armenian-orphan-rug-to-go-on-display-at-white-house-visitor-center-in-november/2014/10/15/287a598e-54a9-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html
From: Baghdasarian
Washington Post
Oct 16 2014
By Philip Kennicott October 15 at 5:23 PM
The White House has confirmed that a controversial historical
artifact known as the Armenian Orphan Rug will go on display at
the newly renovated White House Visitor Center next month. The rug,
woven by Armenian orphans in the 1920s and presented to President
Calvin Coolidge in 1925, was a gift thanking the United States for
its role in assisting Armenians after the mass killings and genocidal
relocations at the hands of the crumbling Ottoman Empire a century ago.
The rug had been scheduled to be displayed at a Smithsonian Institution
event in December, but that was canceled suddenly after the White
House, without explanation, declined to release the carpet.
At the time, Armenian American groups speculated that the Turkish
government, which has long resisted acknowledging the events of 1915
as a genocide, was behind the White House's refusal.
In April, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said the White House had
agreed to allow the rug to be seen, but the White House didn't offer
specific details about where or when. With tensions rising between the
United States and Turkey over how best to handle the crisis in Syria,
the decision today still came as a surprise. The U.S. government
has been pressuring Turkey to assist Kurdish forces in their fight
against the Islamic State, while Turkey has tied its participation in
stepped-up action against the extremist group to a firmer U.S. resolve
to remove Turkey's longtime foe, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,
from office.
A senior administration official said the timing of the announcement
was unrelated to current events and that the decision was made months
earlier. At issue was where and how to display the object, and there
was concern about the proper care of the valuable carpet. The colorful
textile is approximately 12 by 18 feet, with more than 4 million
knots. It took some 10 months for the orphans, under the protection
of the Near East Relief Society, to make it.
The carpet, originally scheduled to be seen as part of a reception
and book launch last year, will now be displayed as one of three key
objects in an exhibition devoted to gifts thanking the United States
for humanitarian assistance. Included in the display will be a 1930
French vase given to President Herbert Hoover and a work known as
Flowering Branches in Lucite, a gift of the Japanese government after
the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
The new exhibition will somewhat blunt the explosive symbolic power of
the rug's display by contextualizing it with other objects in a show
titled "Thank You to the United States: Three Gifts to Presidents in
Gratitude for American Generosity Abroad."
But Armenian groups will be watching how the rug is displayed and what
action the United States takes in the coming year, which will mark the
100th anniversary of the genocide. Of particular concern is a public
acknowledgment by the United States that the killing and starvation
of the Armenians, which caused an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million
deaths, was technically genocide. Although then-presidential candidate
Barack Obama said he would support such a position, Armenian groups
have criticized him for not explicitly using the word "genocide"
to refer to those events. That dissonance has been particularly
pronounced since last June, when Obama nominated Samantha Power to
be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power, author of the
well-regarded 2002 book "A Problem From Hell," used the term throughout
her history of genocide to refer to the treatment of the Armenians.
Although grateful that the rug will now be seen, Aram S. Hamparian,
executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America,
is concerned that this may be a symbolic gesture meant to appease
the Armenian American community and that 2015 will pass without
the president allowing the U.S. government to formally acknowledge
the genocide.
"We hope the display of this rug will mark real progress, not a
substitute for progress," Hamparian said.
He is also concerned about how the rug will be explained in the
exhibition, and whether information accompanying it will forthrightly
use the word genocide. If the display doesn't speak directly about
the events, he says, the rug's appearance for the first time since
1995 may yet leave a sour taste among many Armenian Americans.
"I would go see it, but it would pain my heart if it was shown in
the context of euphemisms and evasive language," Hamparian said.
The rug will be on display Nov. 18-23.
The Turkish Embassy was not able to immediately comment.
Philip Kennicott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Art and Architecture
Critic of The Washington Post. He has been on staff at the Post since
1999, first as Classical Music Critic, then as Culture Critic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/armenian-orphan-rug-to-go-on-display-at-white-house-visitor-center-in-november/2014/10/15/287a598e-54a9-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html
From: Baghdasarian