WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) National Board Member Aida Dimejian joined over 35 U.S. Senators and Representatives and top faith-based and human rights leaders in calling for concrete U.S. steps to safeguard Christian communities in the Middle East and ending U.S. complicity in Turkey’s Armenian Genocide denial.

“I stand before you as a grandchild of genocide survivors. I stand before you as someone who was born in the Middle East – Beirut, Lebanon. And I stand before you as the daughter-in-law of a Christian Armenian family who fled their home from Aleppo, Syria fearing torture and persecution because of our faith,” Dimejian told participants of the In Defense of Christians (IDC) National Advocacy Convention, gathered at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Auditorium on the September 8th.

“The mass persecution and extermination of Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities in the Middle East today is a religiously and ethnically motivated genocide.”

Noting that the Armenian nation has been battling genocide and its denial for over a century, Dimejian outlined why it is essential for Congress to adopt the Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution (H.Res.154) - spearheaded by Representatives Robert Dold (R-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), David Valadao (R-CA), and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), explaining that its passage would help:

-- Make the world safer from future atrocities, by breaking the dangerous precedent set by Turkey of a known case of genocide committed, consolidated, and denied with impunity.

-- Make Turkey more tolerant, by openly and honestly addressing the modern-day consequences of its past crimes - much as America has sought to atone for slavery and Germany has attempted to reckon with its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide.

-- Secure a sustainable improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations - a long term U.S. regional interest - based upon a foundation of truth and justice.

-- Strengthen America's international standing, by ending a shameful era of U.S. complicity in Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide.

“Consistent with our core American belief in freedom of expression, America should reject any attempts by Ankara to impose a gag-rule on honest discourse about the Armenian Genocide,” continued Dimejian. “In pursuit of our national interest in improving ties between Armenians and Turks, respectful relations between Yerevan and Ankara, and a more tolerant and pluralist Turkey, U.S. diplomacy should press for an end to Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide.”