Chairman Smith Asks Obama Administration For Report On Aid To Syrian Armenians

Asbarez.com

June 27, 2013

WASHINGTON—Republican and Democratic members of a key U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee joined yesterday with the panel’s Chairman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), in voicing growing Congressional concern for the welfare of Armenians, other Christians, and all religious minority communities in Syria, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

“We want to thank Chairman Chris Smith for holding yesterday’s hearing about religious minorities in Syria, and would also like to share our special appreciation with all his colleagues who joined with him in using this important national platform to raise concerns about the welfare of at-risk and refugee Armenians, other Christians, and all Syrian minorities,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We are particularly grateful for Chairman Smith’s formal request of the Obama Administration to share with Congress the specific steps that our government is taking to ensure that U.S. aid programs provide needed assistance to vulnerable Armenians in Syria, as well as for those who have left Syria and found refuge in Armenia. We very much look forward to sharing the work of our State Department and USAID on this matter of urgent concern to all Armenian Americans.”

The hearing, titled: “Religious Minorities in Syria: Caught in the Middle,” featured testimony from a State Department human rights official, Thomas O. Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, as well as from a number of experts: Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom; Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., a Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Rev. Majed El Shafie, Founder of One Free World International, and; John Eibner, Ph.D., CEO of Christian Solidarity International, USA.