WASHINGTON. - U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Standing Committee passed with a vote of 43 to 1 the amendment calling on Turkey to stop religious discrimination, lift all restrictions on meetings for prayer and religious instruction and return the illegally seized church property.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that on the occasion of 37th anniversary of Turkish invasion in Cyprus, one of the most important Congressional Committees of the U.S. has scheduled to push Turkey to stop persecution of its Christian minority and to return Christian churches to their respective owners.  

The amendment introduced by House of Representative MPs Ed Royce (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA) is based on H. Res. 306 had 34 supporters in bipartisan consensus. Approval of this act is of great interest to Armenian, Greek, Assyrian-Chaldean communities of Turkey.