Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email anca@anca.org
Internet

PRESS RELEASE
March 29, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

REP. WATSON ALERTS COLLEAGUES TO TURKEY’S TOKEN EFFORTS
TO USE AKHTAMAR RENOVATION TO MISLEAD THE U.S. CONGRESS

— Cites Turkey’s Destruction of Hundreds of Armenian
Religious Sites; Urges Members of the House to Work
for the Passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106)

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Diane Watson, a leading member of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today warned her colleagues
not to be misled by the Turkish government’s token efforts to use
the renovation of a single Armenian Church to obscure its
longstanding policy of destroying Armenian cultural heritage and
denying the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

"We thank Congresswoman Watson for her work in alerting her
colleagues to the true motivations behind this token – and all too
transparent – effort by the Turkish government to draw attention
away from its anti-Armenian policies," said ANCA Executive Director
Aram Hamparian. "It is clearly not an act of tolerance for Turkish
leaders to turn an ancient and sacred church, with profound
religious meaning for Armenians worldwide, into a secular museum,
upon which a cross is forbidden and within which prayer is
prohibited."

In a Dear Colleague letter circulated today, the day of the
official opening of the newly renovated Holy Cross Church on
Akhtamar Island, in Lake Van, as a museum, she noted that, "the
Turkish government is holding an event to tout the rehabilitation
of an Armenian Church. Unfortunately, this event obscures the
reality that hundreds of Christian Armenian Churches in Turkey,
some dating as far back as the 4th century, have been neglected and
even egregiously abused." She urged her colleagues to visit a
website documenting this destruction:
nd/hist_sites.htm

Congresswoman Watson explained that, "Armenia, which was the first
nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 A.D., has a
remarkably rich history of ancient churches and Christian
artifacts. Sadly, the Turkish government – which still, against
all evidence, denies the Armenian Genocide – continues to actively
pursue the eradication of Armenian ancient monuments. It is a
desperate and malicious campaign, which began in 1915, to erase the
Armenian people’s physical and cultural existence in their historic
homeland."

The Los Angeles legislator closed her letter by pointing out that,
"only under great international pressure has the Turkish government
begrudgingly preserved this single Armenian Church, a holy site
that was already widely recognized as a world treasure. This token
effort stands in stark contrast to the hundreds of Armenian
Churches that have been and continue to be neglected, deliberately
damaged, and often entirely destroyed in Turkey and Azerbaijan."

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