The undersigned members of the AGBU chapters and the Armenian community in Cyprus, greatly disturbed by statements that the land on which the Melkonian Educational Institute was built by philanthropists Garabed and Krikor Melkonian is to be sold, request a clear-cut statement of intent on the subject from the Central Board of the AGBU.

We cannot believe that the Board would consider such an action because:
(a) selling land at the present time in Cyprus would be a gross financial misjudgment;

(b) the land and buildings were deeded to the AGBU in trust to manage for the education of future generations of Armenians and not as a piece of real estate to provide income;

(c) an Armenian organization which does such exemplary work in the preservation of Armenian culture, language and heritage in the U.S.A. cannot wittingly be complicit in the deracination of Armenian communities who have remained in the Middle East by dismantling the region'stronghold of Armenian education;

(d) it would be unthinkable that an Armenian organization could itself demolish a historical institution which the deliberate bombing by Turkish planes in 1974 could not achieve.