Your trusted source

In a statement issued Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff applauded the lawsuit filed by the Great House of Cilicia in the Turkish Constitutional Court to regain ownership of the historic headquarters of the Church, which includes the Catholicosate, the monastery and cathedral of St. Sophia, a major Armenian Christian holy site located in the Sis (currently Kozan), in south-central Turkey, Asbarez reports.

“I applaud the lawsuit filed in Turkish court to regain ownership of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilcia which was confiscated during the Armenian Genocide,” said Schiff. “This ancient and sacred site must be returned to its rightful owners nearly a century after it was pillaged by the Ottoman Empire. Armenians are right to pursue all legal avenues to obtain justice and to seek the return of what is rightfully theirs.”

This site was confiscated by the Turkish Government following the Genocide of 1915 in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed or deported by the Ottoman Empire.

Related: Cilician See to file lawsuit to reclaim Sis Catholicosate from Turkey