United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffers Sarah Arkin and Damian Murphy visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial on August 9.
Sarah Arkins and Damian Murphy laid a wreath at the memorial and flowers at the Eternal Flame and observed a minute of silence in memory of the Armenian Genocide victims, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute said in a press release.
The Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Harutyun Marutyan presented the history of the Memory Alley to the guests and noted that the first tree dates back to 1997, and it was planted by the US Senator Robert Dole in memory of Hambar Kelekyan, an Armenian-American surgeon who survived the Armenian Genocide. He then presented the story of the three khachkars placed at Tsitsernakaberd in memory of the Armenians who died in the massacres organized by the Azerbaijani government in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Gandzak) and Baku at the end of the 20th century, as well as the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in front of Hushapat during the Artsakh struggle of survival - stressing that the events were the continuation of the Armenian Genocide.
Sarah Arkins and Damian Murphy arrived in Armenia at the instructions of Robert Menendez, the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.