HURRIYET DAILY NEWS: ANCA MAY FACE INVESTIGATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.02.2009 00:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Washington based ethics monitor, Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, has filed complaints
with federal agencies against the Armenian National Committee of
America, or ANCA, for various lobbying and campaign violations,
Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Accordiong to Turkish newspaper "CREW submitted voluminous materials
to the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, Secretary
of the Senate and Clerk of the House on Thursday that complained ANCA,
the largest U.S. Armenian group had engaged in prohibited activity as
a charitable organization, violated the Foreign Agents Registration
Act and also skirted the Lobbying Disclosure Act."

As it is mentioned in the article "the letters of complaint said
ANCA had violated restrictions on charitable organizations "by
participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of
(or in opposition to) any candidate for public office." It said the
organization illegally participated in the endorsement of Barack Obama
for U.S. President and Joseph Biden for Vice-President, as well as
some 15 U.S. Senate candidates and 211 U.S. House candidates."

Moreover ANCA executives "have lobbied Congress and the executive
branch heavily with regard to perennial congressional Armenian
genocide resolutions and other legislation bearing on U.S.-Armenia,
U.S.-Turkey or U.S.-Azerbaijani relations without even registering
with the Secretary of the Senate or Clerk of the House."