21 March 2016. On Monday morning, His Holiness Aram I decorated Prof Dabbagh, Director of the Genocide and Diaspora Studies Institute at Bochum University, in the presence of the members of the brotherhood and representatives of ‘Hay Tad’ (Armenian Cause) committees in Lebanon. Mrs Vera Yacoubian, Director of the Middle East Office of ‘Hay Tad,’ introduced Prof Mihran Dabbaghian and spoke of his academic activities and publications.

In his address, Catholicos Aram I said that the Catholicosate of Cilicia highly appreciates all Armenian and non-Armenian experts and researchers who focus their work on the recognition of the Just Cause of the Armenians and the restitution of their losses. He then commended Prof Dabbagh for his academic career in German Universities and spoke of the particular importance of his work due to Germany’s role during the Armenian Genocide and its current position in international politics. He then spoke of the leading role of the Catholicosate of Cilicia in striving for the restitution of the rights of the Armenian people. He said that the Armenian Church and its people are inseperable, that justice is a concern for all churches and a priority for the Catholicosate of Cilicia, and, most importantly, that justice is a gift of God, available to all people. As a victim of the Genocide, the Catholicosate of Cilicia could not remain indifferent, concluded His HolinessAram I. He then decorated Prof Mihran Dabbagh, who thanked the Catholicos for the honour, and he praised him for the contribution of the Catholicosate to the Armenian Cause internationally. He then spoke of the importance of coordinating all work done for the Armenian Cause and asked His Holiness to centralize it by bringing together academics, experts and researchers in the diaspora. As a sign of gratitude for the honour, he offered the Catholicos his book, entitled Disposession and Bequest: a collection of eyewitness stories by survivors of the Genocide.