On September 16, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Eastern U.S. Central Committee and the Armenian Democratic Liberal Party Eastern District USA issued a joint statement calling the September 19 “reopening” of the Holy Cross Church in Akhtamar “an occasion not for celebration, but for consternation” and welcoming the decisions of Armenian groups to boycott this “travesty”, The Armenian Weekly reported.

The parties called on Armenian Americans to boycott the October 7 Turkish-Armenian pianist Sahan Arzruni’s concert in New York organized by the Turkish Consulate, in celebration of the Akhtamar “reopening.”

The two political parties consider this event to be “an extension of the same old denialism that would undermine our rights and our Cause”.