The goal of this meeting is to encourage Turkish-Americans and friends of Turkey to become more active citizens in American society by equipping them with information and tools needed to defend and promote Turkish-American interests, and ultimately our home country, Turkey. For more than nine decades the grim and tireless debate between Turks and Armenians has worked its way through the Congress, and now, into the US presidential campaign. More recently, the developments in Iraq, and specifically in Northern Iraq, have come to pose additional challenges to Turkish-American relations. It is thus imperative for us to organize our efforts to inform, educate and effectively impact our communities about our concerns and positions. Your presence at this meeting is strongly encouraged, and it will help strengthen our voice in an increasingly hostile political arena.