Mouradian to Discuss Turkey’s Confiscation of Christian Churches at Armenian Cause 2.0

Timely Presentation will Address Key Points Raised by Introduction of H.Res.306

WASHINGTON—Khatchig Mouradian, the editor of the Armenian Weekly and one of the diaspora’s leading public intellectuals, will speak at the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA) “Armenian Cause 2.0” conference about the confiscation of Christian church properties by the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey.

Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig Mouradian

Mouradian’s timely presentation will take place in wake of the recent introduction of a resolution, H.Res.306, in the U.S. House calling upon Turkey to return Christian religious properties to the Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and the other nations that have lived on the lands of present-day Turkey for thousands of years. This religious freedom measure, which has already come under attack from Ankara’s surrogates in Washington, D.C., has drawn broad bipartisan support, including from both Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Democrat Howard Berman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the influential panel to which this legislation has been referred.

Mouradian’s presentation, the first ever about H.Res.306 at a civic or community gathering, will cover the Ottoman era of Sultan Abdulhamid and the Young Turks through to the present-day Republic of Turkey. Drawing from a wealth of primary and secondary sources, including recently published scholarly works, Mouradian will present an overview of the process through which Armenian property, including church property, was confiscated from Armenians and transferred to the Ottoman and later Turkish state, and how the economic wealth stolen from the Armenians contributed to the creation of the Turkish national economy.

He will share a broad overview of the destruction, desecration, and disregard of Armenian and other Christian church properties, and a detailed inventory of pre- and post-genocide religious properties. Mouradian will then discuss the Turkish state’s current policy towards Armenians and Armenian cultural and religious heritage in Turkey. He will also explore, with all in attendance, the moral and material remedies available to begin addressing the damages inflicted upon the Armenian and other victims of Ottoman and later Republican Turkey’s genocidal campaign to eliminate the Christian populations within its borders.

In addition to serving as editor of the Armenian Weekly, Mouradian is a Ph.D. student in Holocaust and genocide studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., where he is writing his dissertation on the destruction of the Armenians in the Syrian desert during the Armenian Genocide.  Mouradian has lectured extensively and participated in conferences in Armenia, Austria, Cyprus, Lebanon, Norway, Syria, Switzerland, Turkey, and across the United States. He has presented papers on media, human rights, and the Armenian Genocide at several academic conferences, including the 5th and 6th Workshops on Armenian-Turkish Scholarship, held at NYU in 2006 and at the Graduate Institute in Geneva in 2008; the International Conference on Genocide and International Law at Haigazian University in Beirut in 2009; the Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) conference in Boston in 2009; the Armenian Genocide Research Conference at Clark University in 2010; and the Armenian Genocide Reparations Conference in Ankara, Turkey, in 2010. Mouradian writes for a number of national and international publications.

Armenian Cause 2.0’s full schedule of educational workshops and interactive presentations, including speakers such as former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, POLITICO National Politics Editor Charles Mahtesian, and angel investor and blogger Haig Kayserian will be complemented by social and networking opportunities, including a dinner reception at the Armenian Embassy hosted by Ambassador Tatoul Markarian. Break-out sessions will include workshops on advocacy, social media, and elections.

Due to high demand, Armenian Cause 2.0 has sold-out.  No more registrations are being accepted.

3 Comments

  1. Turkey has much to do to put right the armenian cultural genocide .
    In 1920 there were more than armenian churches in Turkey,half of them have been destroyed,many have been ruined by excavations in search of buried gold.
    Many churches have been turned into mosques, monastries have been transformed in farms…
    The only among our neighbours that preserves Armenian monuments on its territory is Iran.

  2. Dear Khatchig, Thank you and you make us all proud for fighting our fights against the perpetrators, who not only stole our lands but made a mockery of our most sacred Churches and our Monasteries.  Fight for us all Khatchig jan, it is a just cause and we are all behind you!

  3. Dear Louise,
    Barbarism and destruction of other civilizations come from the people and their nature..Persians long historical civilization preserved not only Armenians monuments, but others such as Jews as well. Cyrus The Great Cylinder was the precursor to the modern Universal Declaration of Human Rights, something, that Turkish government struggling since the fall of Ottomans, and denying Christian genocide, ever occurred in Turkey, especially Armenian Genocide, where denial of genocide not only is part of Turkish Government priorities, it is also part of Turkish human rights charter, where they call proudly “penal code 301”. It is like Cyrus The Great Cylinder, made only for Turks!!

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