ANCA hails Clinton’s pressure on Turkey to return stolen Christian property

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has welcomed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first-ever public assertion that the U.S. government is actively pressing the highest levels of the Turkish government to restore confiscated properties to religious communities.

Secretary Clinton's acknowledgment of Washington's pressure on Ankara came in a written response to an August 15, 2011 ANCA letter in which the organization's national chairman, Ken Hachikian, shared with her the Armenian American community's objections to U.S. ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone's serious mischaracterization regarding the number of Christian churches that escaped Ottoman and, later, Republican Turkey's campaigns of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and cultural destruction.

Secretary Clinton, in her response, stated: "We continue to stress the importance we attach to religious freedom in Turkey with Turkish leaders. We also continue to raise our concerns regarding the restoration of previously confiscated properties to religious communities with Turkish authorities at the highest levels. In this regard, we will be following closely the implementation of the Government of Turkey's August 27 decree to return all confiscated immovable property belonging to 162 officially recognized non-Muslim religious community foundations in Turkey."

The letter from Secretary Clinton, coming less than two months after the near-unanimous July 20th vote by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee calling on the State Department to pressure Turkey to return stolen Christian churches, reflects the growing momentum of the "return of churches" movement among Armenian Americans, other Christian groups persecuted by Turkey, and, more broadly, by advocates of religious freedom. The controversy over ambassador Ricciardone's mistaken response, which was viewed widely as a bid to appease Ankara, delayed his confirmation by the U.S. Senate until October 4th.

In the ANCA's response to Secretary Clinton's letter, Hachikian noted that: "We welcome your commitment to the restoration by Turkey of all confiscated religious properties, and look forward to your leadership in producing concrete results in support of our nation's policy on this matter."