Forbes magazine has included the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI) in the list of 9 must-see memorial museums of the world.
The AGMI opened in 1995, concurrently commemorating the eightieth anniversary of this crime against humanity perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.
The two-storey construction is built directly into the side of a hill so as not to detract from the imposing presence of the Genocide Monument nearby. The first floor of the Museum is subterranean and houses the administrative, engineering and technical maintenance offices as well as Komitas Hall, which seats 170 people. It also hosts the storage rooms for museum artifacts and scientific objects, as well as a library and a reading hall. The Museum exhibit is located on the second floor in a space just over 1000 square meters.
As AGMI director Hayk Demoyan said earlier this year, the opening of the new premises will take place in April 2015. “We will expand the territory and introduce new designer solutions and technologies applied in the best museums of the world,” he said.
The Forbes list also includes the Holocaust History Museum (Yad Vashem) in Jerusalem, Museum of Maritime Disasters in Crimea, Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum in Kyiv, Gulag History Museum in Moscow, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Titanic Belfast Museum, Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, as well as the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York.