Armenian leaders support National Christian Conference on Capitol Hill

Armenian leaders support National Christian Conference on Capitol Hill

PanARMENIAN.Net - The growing movement to secure U.S. government support for at-risk Christian communities throughout the Middle East will be showcased this week in Washington, DC, as In Defense of Christians (IDC) kicks off its second annual conference on Capitol Hill, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA.)

The three-day convention, geared toward mobilizing grassroots advocacy in support of Christians in the Middle East, will kick-off on Wednesday, September 9 with a press conference titled, "ISIS, Genocide, and an International Response.” Joining ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian at this event will be, among others, Frank Wolf, a former U.S.

Representative and the past Co-Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress. Also speaking will be the Chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett; Genocide Watch Founder and President, Dr. Gregory Stanton; IDC Executive Director Kirsten Evans, and other top religious and human rights leaders. They are all expected to call attention to the systematic eradication of entire communities of religious minorities in Iraq and Syria, and to draw parallels to the World War I-era genocides of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Syriac and other Christians.

On Wednesday evening, His Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Eastern United States will be joining Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, and a broad range of representatives of Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical and other Christian denominations and rites for an Ecumenical Prayer Service at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill.

On Thursday, a bi-partisan group of Senators and Representatives will share their efforts to mobilize Congress in support of Christians in the Middle East, followed by a talk on effective advocacy practices by a team of government affairs experts, which will include the ANCA's Kate Nahapetian and A Demand of Action's Steve Oshana, among others.

The convention will culminate in a Solidarity Dinner, which will feature remarks by U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein, Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus, Cardinal Wuerl, and Patriarch Youssef Younan, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syrians for the Syriac Catholic Church, among others.

 Top stories
The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says.
Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer.
A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says.
The United States believes there should be an international mission to provide transparency.
Partner news
---