US Armenians hail passage of ‘return of churches’ Bill

Ümit Enginsoy
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
21/7/2011

Several U.S. Armenian groups on Thursday welcomed the passage of a “return of churches” measure by a U.S. House of Representatives committee, calling on Turkey to safeguard its Christian heritage.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee late Wednesday approved the amendment to the State Department Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The measure was adopted by a vote of 43 to one, with Rep. Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas and a presidential contender in next year’s election, casting the lone vote against the bipartisan amendment.

“We won this landmark victory in the face of years of Turkey’s lies about its supposed tolerance, and despite its token conversion of a few ancient churches,” said Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, the largest and most influential U.S. Armenian group.

“The Turkish government even tried to justify its confiscation of so-called disused churches by blaming Christians for abandoning them, entirely ignoring that thousands of parishes were destroyed through pre-meditated mass murder,” Hachikian added.

Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying that any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

The Armenian Assembly of America, the second-largest U.S. Armenian group, also praised the Foreign Affairs Committee’s decision, commending Ranking Democratic Member Howard Berman and Congressman Ed Royce for the “resounding vote in support of religious freedom in Turkey,” said the group’s executive director, Bryan Ardouny.

“This is a vote of justice against injustice,” said Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, legate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church, who was present during the vote. “I hope this will be the first of many steps toward preserving Armenian Christian heritage in Turkey,” he said.

Based on House Resolution 306, introduced by Royce, a Republican from California, and Berman, a Democrat from California, the amendment urges “the government of Turkey to honor its obligations” to “end all forms of religious discrimination,” “allow the rightful church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to organize and administer prayer services,” “return to their rightful owners all Christian churches and other places of worship” and “allow the rightful Christian church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to preserve, reconstruct and repair, as they see fit, all Christian churches.”

U.S. Greek groups also fully backed the measure.

The Turkish Embassy in Washington has said “the resolution is deeply regrettable because it unfairly distorts the facts on the ground while flatly overlooking Turkey’s efforts to promote religious freedom and tolerance.”

One Washington-based analyst said that the measure was “a step back in the U.S.-Turkish relationship.”

Berman and Royce were also staunch supporters of earlier resolutions calling on the U.S. government to recognize Armenian claims of genocide. Such resolutions have passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee four times since 2000 but have never come to a full House vote.

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