WASHINGTON—On July 21, with a vote of 43 to 1, the House Foreign Affairs Committee overwhelmingly adopted the Berman-Cicilline Amendment, calling on Turkey pressing Turkey to return stolen Christian churches and to end its repression of its Christian minority, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“Today’s overwhelming vote represents a powerful victory for religious freedom, and a step toward the rightful return of the thousands of Christian churches and holy sites stolen by Turkey through genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
“Ninety-six years after the genocide perpetrated against the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, the Turkish government has destroyed or confiscated the vast majority of their holy sites and places of worship. The Foreign Affairs Committee today sent a powerful message to Turkey that it must come to terms with this brutal legacy, respect religious freedom of surviving Christian communities, and return the fruits of its crimes.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-Calif.) was joined by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) in offering the amendment to the State Department Authorization bill, based upon language from H.Res.306, the “Return of Churches” resolution spearheaded by Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), both senior members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Armenian Americans across the U.S. made thousands of phone calls to their Representatives in support of the measure, following a week of action alerts issued by the ANCA.
Similar calls to action have been issued by Archbishops Moushegh Mardirossian and Oshagan Choloyan, Prelates of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Western and Eastern United States, respectively. His Eminence Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Fr. Sarkis Aktavoukian, Fr. Oshagan Gulgulian, Fr. Mesrob Hovsepyan, and Fr. Hakob Gevorgyan were in attendance at the committee hearing to offer their support for the passage of this legislation.
The measure has also received broad-based support from the Greek and Assyrian American communities, with the American Hellenic Education and Progressive Association (AHEPA), the American Hellenic Institute, and the American Hellenic Council issuing statements calling their community to action. “This resolution stands in the proud American tradition of championing religious freedom around the world,” stated AHEPA Supreme President Nicholas A. Karacostas. “If adopted, this measure will further reinforce our nation’s commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also build upon the passage by Congress of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and many other pieces of legislation promoting religious freedom abroad.”
The ANCA Webcast the proceedings live on its website, www.anca.org.
Additional coverage of speeches offered by Committee members will be provided in the upcoming days.
Are they going to allow Us to pray…
In somewhere…They snatched it before
Something they never knew how to build…
But had it by their Scimitars…
Will they return our souls those who prayed there…?
Are they going to return
Akhtamar Church or Aya-Sofia cathedral as well…
Or they will say, those are Museums…
and no longer Churches or Mosques…
Awake…!
They can do any thing
Not to return any thing
and will never allow us to prey
As they took all…like a piece of cake…
Did they inform God…
And took his permit
To confiscate everything…
The way they liked…!
At the end, they will say,
“Our God ordered us to take…
Everything from our enemies…
Now we are the owners of all lands…
The building are stones…You can’t take back your stones…
You build it …But we will use the way we like…
So we can modify…destroy…and will never allow you to pray there…!
Remember me…
I gave you… all the answers
That they think off
Don’t waste your time…
To ask from scavengers more…!
They are muslims by names…
But never by minds and hearts…
SP
Kudos is due to all the tireless staff, volunteers and interns at the ANCA for a job well done! You have again exceeded our expectations and continue to courageously fight for the legitimate return of our stolen assets. I look forward to supporting more justice oriented legislation on this front in the near future. Our community will not rest until Turkey accepts responsibility for its illegal actions and surrenders the fruits of its genocidal crimes.
Vartsgerneet gadar, Bravo!
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) claims that “Turkey has a better record than most Muslim majority countries” with respect to religious freedom. He rather arrogantly asked “Why are we singling them out?”
Here’s why.
Most countries with a Muslim majority don’t have gag rules in place criminalizing discussion about historically documented discrimination and persecution of their native minorities that lead to the premeditated slaughter and illegal appropriation of their religious property and other assets. Turkey is singled out for its lack of religious tolerance because the same forms of xenophobic discrimination that were used back in 1915 before and during the genocidal campaign against its minority populations, remain today as acceptable institutionalized norms of discrimination in society whereby non-Muslim Turkish citizens are still perceived and treated as second class citizens or ‘infidels’ to be exact.
Iran has a better record than Turkey of protecting Christian monuments and allowing Christians the right to worship. In fact, Turkey has the worse record in the region in the confiscation and destruction of Christian churches.
Praise the Lord…. We finally saw Washington do something right when it comes to recognizing how Turkey is manipulating and destroying anything holly and related to Christians.. especially Armenians..May God protect and watch over those who tirelessly worked to get this passage passed..it is a victory indeed.. and what we need to do is continue to workwith other Greek and Assyrian organizations to get our case stronger and our voice louder… they can be essential to our success as well.
I will continue to prayfor our on-going victories…
If you can spare few dollars, please do donate to ANCA.. every little thing counts…
Gayane
We are living in interesting times. After decades of denial and the passages of times, our cause grows stronger. Armenia is independent, Karabakh is liberated, the protocols exposed the Turks as deceitful and our diaspora continues to fuel the passion for justice.
The churches in western Armenia are a critical discussion because of their spiritual and cultural importance and because they are links to our claims for western Armenia. Their presence is evidence of a civilization that was well established that was illegally removed from their homeland. These gems of architecture also provide a contemporary window for our youth to connect with western Armenia. First the controversy over the Holy Cross”renovation” on Akhtamar, then the disgrace at Ani with Turkish nationalists and Elle magazine and now the restoration of St. Giragos in Diyarbekir and the outreach of the Kurdish officials.
There are debates on all these issues, but can we agree that the good news is that our cause is alive and relevant…on the world stage with Armenia and the diaspora as the caretakers of our quest for justice. Problems? many yes, but alive and gaining momentum yes!
Gayane, I always appreciate your inspiring and passionate comments. It is this spirit that energizes and motivates our community. We think of our parents and grandparents and we are inspired. We look at our children and we know that we must continue the good fight. Your ancient name of one our first and courageous Armenian women saints is very appropriate.
From Wikipedia…Returning Mount Ararat before our churches…
Like all the other republics of the Soviet Union, Armenia had its own flag and coat of arms. The latter became a source of dispute between the Soviet Union and Turkey in the 1950s when Turkey complained as to why it contained the image of Mount Ararat, which holds a deeply symbolic importance to Armenians but is located on Turkish territory. Turkey felt that by having the image on the flag, the Soviet Union was making a territorial claim against it.Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union at the time, retorted by asking: “Why do you have a moon depicted on your flag? After all, the moon doesn’t belong to Turkey, not even half the moon … Do you want to take over the whole universe?”[25] The government of Turkey dropped the issue after this.[26]