On 11-13 June, the halls of the U.S. Congress hosted Coptic Solidarity’s annual meeting. This year’s meeting was held with the title “100 Years Later: Christians of the Near East Facing the Danger of Another Genocide”, reports the press service of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Among the participants of the event were 11 Democrat and Republican Congressmen, a senator, several current and former officials, as well as members of non-governmental organizations representing various ethnic groups residing in the United States, including Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America Ken Hachikian and member of the Armenian Assembly of America Daniel Kushakchian.

The keynote speakers were the Ambassador of Slovenia to the United States of America, the Vice-Ambassador of Cyprus, envoys and advisers from the Embassies of Armenia, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Greece and Canada, as well as Member of the House of Lords, Baroness Baridge.

In their speeches, the speakers expressed support to the Christian communities in the Near East and expressed their deep concerns about the developments unfolding in the Near East, the formation of ISIS and the actions of other structures perpetrating terrorist acts, as well as the illegal acts and violence against the Christians and Yazidis living in the region. The speakers mentioned that the international community must make efforts to protect the historical and cultural heritage in the region. Most of the European diplomats were viewing the situation concerning the Christians in the region in the field of protection of human rights and particularly freedom of conscience and mentioned the need to use that international instrumentation for the solution to the issue.

In his speech, envoy of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America Hrachya Tashchyan mentioned the friendly relations between the Armenian people and Christian nations in the Near East and emphasized the presence of Armenian communities in many countries of the Near East and the danger facing the Armenians living in Iraq and Syria. In that context the speaker recalled the actions of the Government of the Republic of Armenia aimed at creating favorable conditions for the integration of about 10,000 Syrian-Armenian refugees having taken shelter in Armenia. Tashchyan mentioned that the Armenians, as a nation having survived the first genocide of the 20^th century, feel that it’s their moral duty to make their contributions to the struggle that the international community is leading against crimes against humanity. At the end, Hrachya Tashchyan mentioned that world civilization would suffer great losses, if there are no Christians left in the Near East. The region will be subject to the falsification of cultures, just like it happened in modern-day Turkey when the Ottoman Turks eradicated the civilizations and cultural heritages of the Western Armenians.