RICCIARDONE CLAIMS PRE-1915 CHRISTIAN CHURCHES STILL OPERATING IN TURKEY

Tert.am
12.08.11

Ambassador Francis Ricciardone, US President Barack Obama’s “recess”
appointee to serve as US Ambassador to Turkey claims that “most of
the Christian churches functioning [on the territory of present-day
Turkey] prior to 1915 are still operating as churches.

Ricciardone made the patently incorred claim in a written response to
questions submitted to him by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Ambassador Ricciardone’s demonstrably false assertion betrays a
callous disregard for Ottoman Turkey’s wholesale destruction of
Christian churches, and for the fate of the millions of Christian
faithful, who worshipped in their homeland within these holy sites
until their genocidal annihilation,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive
Director of the ANCA. “Whether his response is due to a truly
remarkable lack of awareness or, instead, to a willful distortion

of the facts of history to fit Ankara’s genocide denial narrative,
this nominee has clearly shown he’s unable to effectively advance U.S.

interests or American values as our nation’s representative in Ankara.”

The historical record shows that of the over 2000 Armenian Churches
that were functioning on the territory of present-day Turkey in 1915,
less than 50 operate today.