 pfa hosts a presentation by ara papian on woodrow wilson s arbitral award tuesday july 1 2014 1900 4906 flint dr bethesda maryland 20816 united states on july 1 2014 policy forum armenia pfa hosted ara papian director of modus vivendi research center in yerevan mr papian s presentation on woodrow wilson s arbitral award as the main basis for armenian territorial rights was based on years of indepth research on us president woodrow wilson s arbitral award of november 22 1920 entitled decision of the president of the united states of america respecting the frontier between turkey and armenia access for armenia to the sea and the demilitarization of turkish territory adjacent to the armenian frontier in his opening remarks pfa s cofounder dr david grigorian noted that mr papian s research offers solid foundations both for broader academic inquiry into the issue and also for any future legal and foreign policy action on the part of armenia s government and diaspora institutions mr papian s work focuses on the arbitral award in the context of international law in general and the united nation s official methodology in particular apart from its historic value the speaker talked about the potential practical implications of president wilson s award for the armenian cause going forward in this regard he stressed that the arbitral award offers a strong foundation for pursuing the armenian claims in international courts of law and that the attention of worldwide armenian communities and armenia should not focus on genocide recognition efforts alone however while the upcoming genocide centennial offers an opportune moment the efforts along these lines have been disappointing due to lack of coordination vision and resources a lively question and answer session followed with members of washington s armenian community expressing their frustration with lack of a coherent vision among the traditional diaspora structures and lobbying groups on the practical issues related to armenian claims beyond the genocide recognition prior to establishing modus vivendi center mr papian was the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of armenia to canada in 200106 and served as the spokesperson and the head of public affairs department at the armenia s foreign ministry in addition to focusing on the arbitral award mr papian s and his colleagues current research bring to light other aspects of the us involvement in and assistance to armenia during the genocide and its aftermath the event was held at the soorp khatch armenian apostolic church in bethesda maryland a suburb of washington dc  