Armenians of America will stage a protest action in front of the White House on May 16 to protest Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington and his meeting with President Donald Trump.

“This is President Trump’s chance to stand up to Erdogan. It’s time to challenge Erdogan’s arm-twisting and – even more importantly – to call out the Turkish government’s covert campaign to hijack U.S. policy through questionable payments to foreign agents, lobbyists, and other influence peddlers,” said Aram Hamparian, Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director.

“He can start putting American principles and priorities first by rejecting Ankara’s gag-rule against honest U.S. remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”

The Armenian National Committee of America will be joining with a broad array of human rights, religious freedom, Kurdish, Hellenic and Assyrian groups in front of the White House to call attention to President Erdogan’s repression at home and aggression abroad.