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