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ISTANBUL: Armenian group hails 2011 as year of success

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  • ISTANBUL: Armenian group hails 2011 as year of success

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    Jan 3 2012


    Armenian group hails 2011 as year of success

    ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
    Ümit Enginsoy

    The head of the largest and most influential U.S. Armenian group has
    declared 2011 as a year of great progress for the Armenian cause
    against Turkey while requesting more donations from Armenian-Americans
    to bolster the cause.

    There were a number of pro-Armenian developments inside and outside
    the U.S. Congress last year, Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian
    National Committee of America (ANCA), said in a statement released
    over the weekend.

    `The historic adoption by the U.S. House of H. Res. 306, demanding
    Turkey return stolen Christian churches, sounded our call for
    reparations loud and clear,' he said. `The high-profile failure of the
    president's deeply flawed nomination of Matt Bryza challenged the
    State Department's `business-as-usual' approach to Azerbaijan's
    alarming march toward war. And, across the Atlantic, the adoption last
    week by the French Parliament of an anti-Armenian Genocide denial law
    set the stage for a renewed worldwide push in 2012 for a truthful and
    just resolution of this crime against humanity.'
    H. Res. 306, a non-binding resolution approved last year by the House
    of Representatives, Congress's lower chamber, calls for the return of
    properties confiscated from Turkey's Christian minorities over the
    past century. U.S. Armenians had accused Bryza, who was nominated by
    President Barack Obama as ambassador to Baku in 2009, of being overtly
    pro-Turkish. Two pro-Armenian senators had placed a hold on him, and
    the Senate failed to organize a vote on him last year, forcing him to
    quit his job.
    Late last month, the lower house in the French Parliament passed a
    bill criminalizing the denial of what Armenians and their supporters
    call the `Armenian genocide.' The French Senate may hold a vote on
    that bill later this month despite Turkish warnings that the bill's
    adoption would lead to a deterioration in ties in a major and lasting
    way. Armenians describe the World War I-era killings of their kinsmen
    in the Ottoman Empire as `genocide.' Turkey rejects the claim and says
    Turks and Muslims were also killed in ethnic strife in eastern
    Anatolia toward the end of the war.

    Hachikian also urged U.S. Armenians to donate funds to ANCA to
    contribute the fight against Turkey.
    `With your faith and renewed financial support, we will do so much
    more,' he said. `Will you consider giving $60, $100, $250 or more to
    empower us to fight for our rights? Any amount makes a difference,
    even a gift of $10.'
    January/03/2012

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