Two men, one Armenian and the other American, surpassed in their deaths the global and all-embracing meanings of their lives. Both were widely revered and occasionally resented for galvanizing and defining whole new eras of understanding and acceptance.

Hrant Dink and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Situated between the anniversary of the death of the Armenian martyr and the anniversary of the birth of the American icon, the Armenian Bar Association will convene a special winter educational retreat dedicated to an appreciation and study of human and civil rights: the final loss of them during the Genocide and the challenges to maintain them in the Republic of Armenia. In a somewhat modest twist of irony, the setting for such a sobering discussion will be the Encore Resort in Las Vegas on January 18-19, 2013.

Peering into the past, Professor Richard Hovannisian, First Holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at U.C.L.A., will present an illustrated lecture on a rarely-discussed topic: the Genocide’s final phase in the arsonous fires and flames of Smyrna/Izmir in 1922. With the use of historic photographs depicting the cultural, religious and economic prosperity of the centuries-old Armenian community, contrasted next to pictures that Prof. Hovannisian took during his recent visits to Smyrna which mark the erasure of any Armenian legacy, the story of the Smyrna tragedy will be unfolded and told. Until 1922, Smyrna had been spared the Ottoman Empire’s ethnic cleansing of its Armenian populations in the eastern provinces. Armenians and Greeks had thought, perhaps both justifiably and naively, that they had found a safe haven in one of the region’s most enlightened and western cities. However, they, too, in the end were not to be spared the Genocide.

Examining the present and looking into the future, specialists from the think tank Policy Forum Armenia (PFA) will present the findings of their latest reports and studies on the successes and failures relating to governance, elections, and civil society initiatives in the Republic of Armenia. PFA is an independent non-profit association whose main objective is to strengthen the discourse on Armenia’s democratic and economic development, offering alternative views and professional analysis containing practical recommendations for public participation and government accountability.

According to PFA, it offers fresh perspectives and challenges certain ingrained stereotypes and the status quo in order to improve the standing of the Republic of Armenia and the rights of its citizens. With the aid of the latest social science research methodologies, PFA tests what some say are only superficial gestures of improving governance and reducing institutionalized corruption.

“We as Armenians, and particularly as an association of lawyers, judges and law students, look to the lessons of the past in order to protect and serve the interests of our communities both in the Diaspora and in the Republic of Armenia. We will be especially privileged with the presence and participation of Professor Hovannisian because he, like few others, can lead us along the bridge connecting our past to where we are today,” stated Garo Ghazarian, Chairman of the Armenian Bar Association.

Edvin Minassian, Chairman Ex-Officio, who was responsible for personally introducing his friend Hrant Dink to the Armenian Bar Association and for featuring him during a historic Armenian Bar meeting just three months before Mr. Dink’s assassination in Istanbul, added: “Hrant Dink the man, the symbol, the sacrifice, and the hope--he stood and fell for the dignity that the Armenian Bar Association strives to deliver to the unresolved issues of the past and of the present.”