Armenian National Committee of America

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The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is an Armenian-American grassroots organization. It is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the country and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

1 History
2 Current activities
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The ANCA is an outgrowth of the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia (ACIA) which founded after the World War I by Vahan Cardashian, the former Consul of the Ottoman Empire in Washington. Many prominent American and Allied leaders including James W. Gerard, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Charles Evans Hughes (later appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court), Elihu Root and others participated to this organization. The goal of ACIA was the independent Wilsonian Armenia. The ACIA had a Central Office in New York City and 23 regional offices in 13 states.

Later, these offices gradually evolved into the Armenian National Committee of America, which expanded its activities to include public relations efforts to acquaint local communities about Armenian issues including the Armenian Genocide and Armenian National aspirations. Other activities included April 24th commemoration activities, public forums, voter registration efforts, support for local and state political candidates and updating the local community on Armenian issues.

[edit] Current activities

The ANCA is active in different areas of political and educational activities, including:

initiating the legislation on issues of concern to the Armenian American community, such as strengthening Armenia as a secure, prosperous and democratic state; supporting Nagorno Karabakh's right to self-determination and independence within secure borders; etc.
participation in the American electoral process at the federal, state, and local levels by educating elected officials about Armenian American issues and providing Armenian American voters with up-to-date information about the positions of candidates on Armenian American concerns.
publication of congressional testimony, position papers, press releases, fact sheets, and regional newsletters.

Beyond the Central offices of ANCA are in Washington, Boston and Los Angeles, ANCA has more than fifty local chapters and thousands of activists^[1], it is cooperating with a large web of regional Armenian National Committees (or Armenian Cause/Hay Tad Offices) in Armenia, Russia, France, the Middle East, Canada and Australia.

Since early 1990's the ANCA have defended Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, restricting aid to the government of Azerbaijan.

The ANCA was among the major organizations backing US House Resolution 106 which called for the United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

The Executive Director of ANCA is Aram Hamparian.