The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Netherlands
Oct 13 2007

The Armenian Lobby
Oct 12th, 2007 by Marc Schulman

At Spiegel Online, Gregor Peter Schmitz tells us that Stephen Walt,
co-author of The Israel Lobby, was recently asked whether other
interest groups had a similar influence in Washington. Walt’s
response: the actions of Armenian-Americans or Cuban-Americans would
never have the same far-reaching effects on US foreign policy.

Never?

Spiegel provides this accounting of the Armenian lobby:

Armenian-Americans are particularly active in California, New Jersey
and Michigan – which happens to be the constituency of Nancy Pelosi,
the Democratic Speaker of the House. Her Californian colleague Adam
Schiff, who promoted the resolution, has the issue to thank for his
own political career. His predecessor in the constituency lost his
seat when he failed to push through the resolution in 2000.

Armenian groups have been bombarding their representatives over the
past few years with an unusually massive PR drive. Their most
important umbrella group `Armenian Assembly of America’ has 10,000
members and an annual budget of over $3.5 million. It employs four
different influential PR firms in Washington to keep the suffering of
the Armenians on the agenda in the US capital.

Yesterday, the Armenian Assembly issued the following press release:

We applaud Speaker Pelosi for standing firm on her commitment to
history and truth,’ said Armenian Assembly Executive Director Bryan
Ardouny. `The opponents of this common-sense resolution – including
the White House and the Turkish government and its army of lobbyists
– have thrown every excuse at the resolution trying to create a
political tsunami to prevent a vote. The entire Armenian-American
community stands united with Speaker Pelosi and commends her for
standing firm in the face of this alarmist drumbeat and outright
blackmail by Turkey and its deniers. We know we have the support to
pass it into law and I look forward to the full House going on record
on this critical issue that has been neglected for far too long.

Common-sense resolution? Not.

enian-lobby/