In a resolution hailed by Armenian-American groups but criticized by Ankara, the U.S. House of Representatives urged Turkey late on Tuesday to respect religious freedom and return Armenian and other Christian worship sites to their “rightful owners.”
Turkey — The Holy Virgin Armenian cathedral in Ani, 30Sep2010
The resolution drafted by two California lawmakers, Republican Ed Royce and Democrat Howard Berman, is virtually identical with legislation approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee in July. It said the Turkish authorities should “end all forms of religious discrimination” of the country’s Christian minorities.
“Despite Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s recent claims of progress on religious freedom, Turkey’s Christian communities continue to face severe discrimination,” Royce said after the House vote.
Berman spoke of “Turkey’s disturbing, persistent failure to respect the ancient Christian heritage of Anatolia.” “Turkey should take immediate steps to restore all confiscated church property and allow full freedom of worship and religious education for all Christian communities,” he said, according to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Ankara was quick to denounce the resolution. The official Anatolia news agency quoted the Turkish ambassador in Washington, Namik Tan, as calling it “unfair and unjustified.”
Turkey — Armenian Christians gather for the reopening of the Church of the Holy Cross on Akhtamar Island in Van,19Sep2010
In contrast, the two main Armenian-American advocacy groups welcomed the measure. They both have lobbied hard for its passage.
“We commend this bipartisan measure in support of religious freedom in Turkey,” said Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.
“Today’s vote – over opposition from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and, sadly, even our own American President’s Administration – represents a powerful victory for religious freedom,” read a separate statement by Ken Hachikian, the ANCA chairman. Hachikian said the resolution underlined the need for “the return of thousands of stolen Christian churches properties and holy sites.”
The eastern regions of modern-day Turkey were once home to hundreds of Armenian churches built there since the early Middle Ages. The vast majority of them were destroyed, ransacked or turned into mosques during and after 1915 slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Royce rebuked Ankara on Tuesday for continuing to vehemently deny that the mass killings and deportations constituted genocide.
One of the few surviving examples of the ancient Armenian civilization in eastern Turkey, the 10th century church of Surp Khach (Holy Cross), was renovated by the Turkish government in 2007. The church perched on the legendary Akhtamar island in Lake Van saw its first mass in nearly a century in September last year.
Turkey — Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party or MHP (R), and provincial party chiefs offer their Friday prayers at an abandoned church-turned-mosque in the historical site of Ani in the Kars province, 01Oct2010
The authorities in Ankara have so far resisted calls for the church’s formal return to Turkey’s small Armenian community. The Akhtamar temple currently has the status of a state museum.
The Turkish government caused outrage in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora later in 2010 when it allowed Turkish nationalists to perform Muslim prayers in another historic Armenian church, the 11th century Holy Virgin Cathedral.
The imposing cathedral is located at the ruins of Ani, the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom. It lies less than one kilometer from the Turkish-Armenian border.
Built by an Armenian royal dynasty in 1001 A.D., the cathedral has for centuries been regarded as a masterpiece of medieval Armenian architecture. According to official Turkish sources, Seljuk Sultan Alparslan converted it into a mosque when he captured Ani and surrounding regions in 1064. The Seljuks were driven out of much of historical Armenia a century later.
via U.S. Congress Tells Turkey To Safeguard Christian Heritage.
WASHINGTON–The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on Tuesday, December 13th on H.Res.306, a religious freedom measure that calls upon Turkey to return stolen Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, and Syriac church properties, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.
This religious freedom measure, which was adopted 43 to 1 on July 20th of this year by the Foreign Affairs Committee, was introduced by Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA). It has been scheduled for a floor vote by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) under a special parliamentary procedure known as the Suspension Calendar. The text of the resolution that is set to come before the House will be the same as the abridged version adopted at the committee level.
“The bipartisan consensus and cooperation we are seeing in support of pressing Turkey to return stolen Christian properties within its present-day borders both reflects and also reinforces America’s enduring commitment to religious freedom, as so powerfully reaffirmed in the enactment by Congress of the International Religious Freedom Act, and so enduringly represented on the international stage by America’s leadership in supporting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. “We encourage supporters of religious liberty – of all faiths – to contact their legislators in support of H.Res.306, and call on all members of the U.S. House to cast their votes for this principled stand for freedom of faith.”
Take part in the ANCA action alert in support of H.Res.306.
For minute-by-minute updates on House consideration of the matter, follow the ANCA Facebook page. The ANCA Facebook page is open to the public, although to participate in the discussion or offer comments, you will need sign-in or register.
Historical Background
Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, Arameans, and Syriacs have long lived in present-day Turkey. Thousands of years before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, they gave birth to great civilizations and established a rich civic, religious and cultural heritage. They were, upon these ancient and biblical lands, among the first Christians, dating back to the travels through Anatolia of the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Armenia, in 301 A.D., became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.
During the World War I-era, after centuries of growing intolerance and persecution, Ottoman Turkey perpetrated a government-sponsored campaign of genocide against its Armenian and other Christians subjects, resulting in the murder of over 2,000,000 Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, Arameans, and Syriacs, and the exile of hundreds of thousands others from their homelands of thousands of years. The Republic of Turkey, heir to the Ottomans, continued these genocidal policies against the remaining Christian population, through ethnic-cleansing, violence, destruction of churches and religious sites, illegal expropriation of properties, discriminatory policies, restrictions on worship, and other means. As a result only a small fraction of the historic Christian population that once populated Anatolia remains in modern Turkey.
The endangered Christian communities within the borders of present-day Turkey, in addition to all the crimes and persecutions visited upon them throughout their histories, continue, to this day, to endure oppressive restrictions imposed by the government of Turkey on their ability to worship in freedom in their historic places of worship, which are still today in Turkish hands as the result of genocide.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has designated Turkey as one of a handful of countries on their watch list for a third consecutive year. The State Department has documented the persecution of Christians in Turkey, including the improper confiscation of their properties. The remaining Christians in Turkey are, all too often, prevented from praying in their historic churches, many of which are desecrated on a daily basis and even used as storage sheds. In very rare instances, Turkey has undertaken repairs of selected Christian churches, but refused to return them to the rightful church owners, and instead converting them into museums, where prayer, as a rule, is prohibited.
via House Set To Call On Turkey To Return Churches | Asbarez Armenian News.
The Armenian Weekly conducted an interview today with the ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. The interview focuses on H.Res 306, the Return of Churches resolution, introduced today. Below is the interview.
Aram Hamparian
Alongside the Armenian Genocide Resolution, there was a new resolution recently introduced in the House of Representatives calling upon Turkey to respect the rights of Christians and to return their stolen churches. Can you tell us more about it?
Well, to begin with, we’re very encouraged by the introduction H.Res. 306—the Return of Churches resolution—by two of the most senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce and Howard Berman, and gratified by the broad, bipartisan support it has garnered.
This religious freedom measure was launched with several dozen original cosponsors, including the co-chairs of the Human Rights, Hellenic, and Armenian caucuses, and, notably, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
A reading of the resolution’s text shows that it calls, very simply, upon the government of Turkey to honor its international obligations to return confiscated Christian church properties and fully respect the rights of all Christians, among them, of course, Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, and Arameans (Syriacs) who have lived for thousands of years in what is present-day Turkey.
This legislation speaks to us powerfully as Americans—committed, as we are, to the principle of religious liberty; as Christians—who seek for ourselves and all people the right to worship in freedom; and as Armenians—who are working for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide that morally and materially makes whole the victim of this horrific crime. There’s no better place to start this long overdue process than with Turkey returning stolen churches.
Why this resolution now?
This measure is urgently needed to confront—and eventually reverse—the vast destruction visited upon religious sites during the Armenian Genocide as well as Turkey’s official and ongoing, post-genocide destruction of church properties, desecration of holy sites, discrimination against Christian communities, and denial of rights to Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Pontians, Arameans (Syriacs), and others.
It’s adoption would add the powerful voice of the U.S. Congress—and the full moral authority of the American people—to the international defense of religious freedom for the Christian nations residing within the borders of present-day Turkey.
Can you briefly describe the communities and churches this legislation seeks to protect?
Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, and Arameans (Syriacs) have long lived in what is present-day Turkey. Many thousands of years before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, these nations gave birth to great civilizations and established a rich civic, religious and cultural heritage. They were, upon these biblical lands, among the first Christians, dating back to the time of the travels through Anatolia by the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Armenia, in 301 A.D., as is well known, became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.
As students of religion worldwide know, the territory of present-day Turkey is home to many of the most important centers of early Christianity—most notably Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople. These lands contain a remarkably rich legacy of Christian heritage, including thousands of religious sites.
And, of course, the Armenian Genocide nearly wiped out these Christian nations.
It’s true. The Armenian Genocide of 1915 and, more broadly, Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal drive to eliminate its entire Christian population, represents a terrible watershed in the histories of the Christians of these lands, marking, as it does, a genocidal shift from the Turkish leadership’s ongoing policy of violence and oppression to one of an outright, systematic, intentional and state-implemented campaign of race extermination.
And so, during the World War I-era, after centuries of growing intolerance and persecution, Ottoman Turkey perpetrated a government-sponsored campaign of genocide against its Armenian and other Christians subjects, resulting in the murder of over 2,000,000 Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians, Arameans (Syriacs), and the exile of hundreds of thousands others from their homelands of thousands of years.
The Republic of Turkey, heir to the Ottomans, continued these genocidal policies against the remaining Christian population, through ethnic-cleansing, organized massacres, destruction of churches and religious sites, illegal expropriation of properties, discriminatory policies, restrictions on worship, and other means. As a result only a small fraction of the vast Christian population that once populated Anatolia remains today in modern Turkey.
What is the situation today of remaining Christians within Turkey?
The endangered Christian communities within Turkey’s present-day borders, in addition to all the crimes visited upon them and their holy sites throughout their histories, continue, to this day, to endure oppressive restrictions imposed by the government of Turkey on their right to practice their faith in their historic places of worship. These endangered sites are, nearly all, still today in Turkish hands as a direct result of genocide.
What does the U.S. government—Turkey’s ally—have to say about religious freedom in Turkey?
The State Department, which often goes to great and frequently unreasonable lengths to excuse Turkey’s conduct, has criticized the persecution of Christians in Turkey, including the improper confiscation of their properties.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, established by Congress, recently designated Turkey as one of a handful of countries on its watch list for a third consecutive year.
All this reflects the sad reality faced by the remaining Christians in Turkey. They are, all too often, prevented from praying in their historic churches, which have been desecrated, sometimes used as storage sheds—and in some cases, even turned into barns. In very rare instances—such as the Akhtamar Church—Turkey has undertaken repairs, but refused to these return religious properties to their rightful church owners, instead converting them into museums, where prayer, as a rule, is prohibited.
Has Congress taken action on these types of religious freedom issues in the past?
The United States, as a nation that was, quite literally, founded upon a belief in religious liberty, has a long and proud tradition of actively promoting and defending freedom of faith around the world.
Our own Bill of Rights safeguards religious freedom for Americans, and our longstanding leadership in championing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants has helped protect freedom of faith across the globe.
America’s enduring commitment to religious freedom was powerfully reaffirmed in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, and has been underscored in countless pieces of specific legislation. Here are a few examples:
Just last year, the U.S. House passed H.Res.1631, which called for the protection of minority religious communities and places of worship in the illegally-occupied portion of Cyprus.
S.Res.705, adopted by the U.S. Senate during the 110th Congress, reaffirmed U.S. support for the preservation of religious and cultural sites, and, in particular, called upon the government of Lithuania to halt and, if necessary, reverse the desecration of a Jewish cemetery located in the Snipiskes area of Vilnius.
H.Res.562, passed by the House during the 105th Congress, cited the confiscation of property by foreign governments as a means of victimizing minority populations, and, specifically, urged foreign governments to return wrongfully expropriated properties to religious communities.
H.Res.191, which was adopted by the U.S. House during the 109th Congress, called upon the government of Romania to provide fair, prompt, and equitable restitution to all religious communities for church properties that had been previously stolen by the government.
H.R.3096 from the 110th Congress, put the U.S. House on record pressing the government of Vietnam to respect freedom of religion and to return properties confiscated from churches.
H.Con.Res.371, passed by the House during the 110th Congress, called on foreign governments to return looted and confiscated properties to their rightful owners or, where restitution was not possible, to pay equitable compensation, in accordance with principles of justice and in an expeditious manner that is just, transparent, and fair.
What type of opposition do you expect to this resolution?
Sadly, if history is any guide, we can look to the Turkish government to stridently oppose this effort to end faith-based discrimination, promote religious tolerance, and secure the rightful return of Christian churches.
This bipartisan measure speaks openly and honestly about the real situation in Turkey today, which inevitably runs up against the many Ottoman and Kemalist myths about Turkey as a model of tolerance and pluralism. So, we’re likely to hear that this measure is unnecessary or even counter-productive given all the great strides that the Turkish government is supposedly making. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the Turkish Embassy trying to spin that its adoption would somehow upset the fragile Turkey-Armenia Protocols process.
What can our readers do to help move this legislation forward?
The quickest and easiest first step is for folks to send a free ANCA WebMail asking their U.S. Representatives to support the Return of Churches resolution (H.Res.306) and work for its adoption.
Another great way to help is to spread the word to friends, family, work colleagues, and people you know who attend churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship – basically anyone concerned about religious freedom and human rights. Send them the link www.anca.org/return or just explain in your own words what this effort is all about.
There are so many ways to engage, from getting involved with your local ANCA chapter and visiting with your local legislators to meeting with the editors of your community newspapers, volunteering for supportive candidates, and building coalitions with friendly groups.
There are as many ways to help as there are people who want to be helpful. If people need a hand, we’re here for you. Just send us an email, call, or post a note to our Facebook page.
We wonder what happens if/when Obama finds out the background image, behind Obama, is of the Turks killed by Armenian thugs In Subatan in 1918.
armenians-1915.blogspot.com
Years of persistent lobbying by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has now led to more than 100 members of the US Congress supporting the Armenian Genocide bill, and in the light of Obama’s record on Armenian Genocide, this healthy bipartisan majority should have led to Americas President Obama formally signing on, after the bill had been passed by the Congress and the Senate.
Following President Obama’s 6th April remarks before the Turkish Parliament, ANCA’s Executive Director Aram Hamparian commented: “In his remarks today in Ankara, President Obama missed a valuable opportunity to honour his public pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Harut Sassounian followed by writing of his efforts to “expose the Turkish government’s ploy of creating the false impression that Ankara is engaged in serious negotiations to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan” ……. “Turkey has been exploiting the illusive promise of opening the border in order to pressure Armenia into making concessions on a host of issues, while simultaneously subverting Pres. Obama’s pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide”.
On the 22nd April, the State Department made an announcement, which was followed by numerous reports in the international news that, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry “Turkey and Armenia had agreed on a roadmap for normalizing relations and reaching reconciliation”. Add to that Russia’s state television announcement that a ‘document’ had been signed, considered to be ‘historic’, it must be assumed that tomorrow 24th April, the chances of President Obama using the ‘Genocide’ word are all but over.
Turkey, through its determined process of negotiations and manipulations, has not only achieved its priority objective of staving off an otherwise inevitable Obama recognition of Armenia’s Genocide, it has also re-linked normalizing Turkish – Armenian relations to the Armenian – Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh. The Sargsyan / Nalbandian camp responded with a resounding silence, a signal that they are not too eager to release the details of the ‘roadmap’ or the document’.
The ANCA effort to gain US recognition has to be commended, but why has ANCA been criticising Turkey for doing exactly what it was expected to do, dissuade Pres. Obama from standing by his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. ANCA should have been directing its criticism at Serzh Sargsyan and Eduard Nalbandian; it was they who thwarted the Obama Genocide recognition, not Turkey.
But ANCA has a problem with criticising the Sargsyan regime, which goes back to Armenia’s first President, Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP). ANCA is made up predominantly of members from the Dashnaktutsiun (Dashnak) Party, which was outlawed by LTP after his victory in the 1991 Presidential election. A number of in-country Dashnak leaders were imprisoned for several years accused of involvement in ‘criminal’ activities. Robert Kocharian forced LTP out of office in 1998 (on the Karabakh issue) and brought the Dashnak Party back from political obscurity. Since then, in contrast to the Dashnaks in the Diaspora, who appear to cling on to traditional and highly commendable Dashnak principles, the Dashnaks in Armenia have disgraced themselves by consistently collaborating with the Kocharian / Sargsyan regime and failing their obligations to the Armenian electorate.
The ANCA was faced with a dilemma; if it had criticised the regime on its Genocide misdealings, then Levon Ter-Petrossian would have been given a boost in his efforts to move back into Armenian mainstream politics, which the Dashnaks in Armenia would not tolerate. The ANCA is also aware that, once in City Hall, LTP would be looking directly at the Armenian Presidential Palace, a major problem for the regime and its faithful co-conspirators, the Dashnak Party. Armenia should therefore not be fooled by a seemingly nationalistic letter from Armen Rostumian, appealing to the US Congress for Genocide recognition; the Dashnaks are in close collaboration with the illegitimate Sargsyan regime in its Genocide ‘Sell-Out’, as it is with all other regime matters.
If the ANCA had directed its criticism and considerable influence at the party actually responsible for Armenia’s failure in this year’s Genocide recognition debacle, then Armenia would have had a much greater chance of celebrating this 24th April as the day which signalled full international recognition of Armenia’s Genocide.
