YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS. On April 25, GEICO Skytypers issued "An Apology"for the Armenian Genocide denial skywriting that occurred over New York City last week.

Armenian Assembly of America Florida Chair and South Florida Armenian Genocide Commemoration, Inc. Chair Arsine Kaloustian designed a campaign to contact the GEICO Skytypers and educate them on their own message. The image featured the GEICO Gecko with the following text: "GEICO Skytypers, sponsored by GEICO was the company that put a sky message above NYC denying Turkey's 1915 Genocide of 1.5 Million Armenians. Tell GEICO Skytypers that rewriting history in the sky IS NOT ACCEPTABLE." People were encouraged to contact the flight lead for Skytypers who approved the message. This image went viral and generated hundreds of responses to GEICO Skytypers.

"This formal apology from GEICO Skytypers should be encouraging to all Armenians who were disturbed in the face of the rampant genocide denial propaganda that has occurred nationwide over the last month," Kaloustian said. "No voice is too small when raised in unison with others who speak out for what is morally right. We hope this will serve as a message to other publicly held companies who may be ignorant on the subject of the Armenian Genocide. We are here. We are numerous. And we remember. Educate yourselves BEFORE running ads such as these."

 As “Armenpress” was informed from the Armenian Assembly of America, the text of the apology runs as follows,

“To those who have been offended by our recent skytyped messages, please accept our most humble and sincere apologies. Below is a recap of how we became involved with the messages. Please understand, we were hired by a third-party agency to promote an event. We clearly did not understand what we were promoting. Had we taken the time to further investigate references made, we would not have accepted the project.

 At the onset, please note that GEICO sponsors the Skytypers for air shows. They are in no way involved with the promotional advertising side of the Skytypers organization. GEICO works in conjunction with the team and air show organizers regarding messages during air shows only.

Please also note the Skytypers only type messages on the east coast. We do not offer banner towing or other aerial forms of advertising. We were not involved in any of the activities on the western coast of the U.S. that took place on April 23-24. In fact, after realizing our own mistake, we encouraged the west coast skytyping team to forego their scheduled involvement with these activities".

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.