Armenian community grieving ‘mentor’ and ‘family’ Benon Sevan

Benon Sevan, a diplomat and former deputy UN secretary general, who dedicated his life to promoting the Armenian heritage and served as a representative of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), died on Monday. AGBU described Benon Sevan as a beacon of guidance, a mentor, a tireless defender of Armenian cultural heritage and a “family” for many generations of Armenians in Cyprus. “His warm personality, keen intellect, passion and selfless generosity earned him the love and respect of all those who had the blessing of knowing him,” the AGBU said. Benon Sevan, born in Nicosia, graduated from the AGBU Melkonian Educational Institute in Cyprus, obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Philosophy at Columbia College, New York, and a graduate degree from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University. Joining the UN secretariat in 1965, Sevan served as a UN Observer with the special representative of the secretary-general for the Act of Free Choice in West Irian (Indonesia), Assistant Resident Representative with the Fund of the UN for the Development of West Irian, and as the senior secretariat official with the mission to inquire on the situation of prisoners of war in the Iran and Iraq conflict. From 1982 to March 1988, Sevan was secretary of the Economic and Social Council and served as secretary of a number of intergovernmental bodies and special UN conferences. In April 1988, he was appointed director and senior political advisor to the representative of the secretary-general on the settlement of the situation relating to Afghanistan. In January 1990, he was also asked to serve as the secretary-general’s representative on the implementation of the Geneva Agreements on Afghanistan. In January 1991, secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar decided that Sevan should also assume the responsibility for the overall administration of the Office for the Coordination of UN Humanitarian and Economic Assistance Programmes Relating to Afghanistan. On July 20, 1992, secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali announced the appointment of Sevan to the post of assistant secretary-general in the department of political affairs at UN Headquarters in New York.