DAMAGE TO HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: CAUSE UNKNOWN

UNCLAS YEREVAN 000258 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT. FOR EUR/CACEN, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM AM SUBJECT: DAMAGE TO HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: CAUSE UNKNOWN Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) The local chairman of the Jewish Community of Armenia, Rimma Varzhapetyan, told us that community members found a stone memorial to the Holocaust lying flat in a park in Central Yerevan on February 11. The rectangular slab showed no signs of being struck, and the official police report stated that the stone came loose from its foundation. As they had no information to contradict the report, Varzhapetyan and the Chief Rabbi of Armenia officially concurred. Varzhapetyan said she didn't want to consider the possibility that it was intentionally vandalized. ¶2. (SBU) Varzhapetyan said that non-Jewish employees of a nearby cafe regularly care for the monument. When they found it toppled on February 10, they attempted to secure it again, but it was found flat the next morning. GODFREY