Turkish lobbyist attacks Armenian Americans

ArmRadio.am
25.03.2006 12:24

Turkey’s top Washington, DC lobbyist, former Louisiana Congressman Bob
Livingston, in perhaps his most strident attack to date, has accused
Armenian Americans of seeking to impose a “tyranny of the minority” by
urging the Congress to adopt human rights legislation concerning the
Armenian Genocide, according to documents obtained this week by the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“It’s truly the height of hypocrisy for a paid foreign agent for
Turkey – a government that violates the rights of its citizens on a
wholesale basis – to try to diminish the role that American citizens
play in the formulation of our nation’s foreign policy,” said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “But, apparently, in the ‘Alice in
Wonderland’ world of Bob Livingston, other nations dictate US policy,
genocides remain unpunished, and foreign lobbyists get to silence
American voters. He would do well to spend more time encouraging his
Turkish clients to learn about democracy, and less time seeking to
abridge the democratic rights of Americans here at home.”

In letters sent to Congressional offices last September, prior to the
House International Relations Committee’s consideration of Armenian
Genocide legislation, Livingston, escalated his rhetoric to
unprecedented levels, arguing, in his capacity as a paid agent of a
foreign government, that he believed the measure “caters to a small
minority of citizens promoting the narrow goals of the minority at the
expense of America’s broader interest.” He went on, in an example of
overstatement rare even by Washington, DC standards, to contend that
Armenian Genocide legislation “is the truest expression of the tyranny
of the minority.” The panel rejected Livingston’s attack, voting 40 to
7 to approve the legislation.