WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian issued the following statement on the eve of President Trump’s scheduled White House meeting with Turkey’s President Recept Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, May 15th:

“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.”

“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 on Tuesday May 15, from 12 noon to 2:00pm in front of the White House at Lafayette Square to call attention to President Erdogan’s repression at home and aggression abroad, including:

— Erdogan’s post-coup consolidation of authoritarian power;
— Erdogan’s mass arrests of the HDP leadership;
— Erdogan’s vast purge of his political opposition;
— Erdogan’s arrest of record numbers of journalists;
— Erdogan’s restrictions on religious freedom and worship and imprisonment of religious leaders including the imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson;
— Erdogan’s Wikipedia ban and social media crackdown;
— Erdogan’s aggression against Kurds in Syria and Iraq;
— Erdogan’s anti-American rhetoric and actions;
— Erdogan’s continued military occupation of Cyprus;
— Erdogan’s obstruction of justice for genocide of Armenians, Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs and Greeks
— Erdogan’s illegal economic blockade of Armenia

Additional information will be posted to the ANCA’s Facebook page for the protest.

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