Rep. Schiff discusses Armenian community issues at ANCA gathering

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and a host of state and local legislators and their staff joined over 300 Armenian American community members from throughout the area to celebrate ANCA Burbank successes and recommit to expanding the role of the local ANCA in all aspects of civic and community life.

Rep. Schiff, a favorite with the local Armenian American community for his leadership on efforts to secure Congressional affirmation of the Armenian Genocide and promote high levels of U.S. aid to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, was eloquent in his remarks detailing Congressional efforts to address the difficult economic times facing the nation. He then outlined a series of Congressional initiatives and strategies addressing U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, and the December, 2011, passage of House legislation, H. Res. 306 which calls on Turkey to return the thousands of confiscated Christian churches to the Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and Aramean (Syriac) communities. On the foreign aid front, Rep. Schiff discussed an expanded focus on U.S. assistance to the Armenian community in the Republic of Georgia, citing his recent discussion of the plight of the Samtskhe-Javakheti Armenian populations with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Rep. Schiff spoke of the important and effective role groups like the ANCA play in Burbank’s civic life. “Through your grassroots activism, we have made great progress on issues, and we have a lot more work to do. But without an incredible ANCA staff in Washington, and incredible ANCA organizations throughout the Western Region and around the country, all we have accomplished would have been absolutely impossible,” explained Rep. Schiff.