ARMENIA NEEDS REAL, NOT SYMBOLIC, HELP
By Jason Epstein
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
P asadena Star-News, CA
April 25 2008
ARMENIA is a troubled nation.
Despite years of generous American financial assistance, Armenia’s
economy remains in a shambles. Corruption is endemic – the public
believes that most wealth created in recent years has only benefited
the oligarchs – unemployment is high, and the prices of basic
necessities continue to rise. It is no wonder that the country’s
population keeps declining – the most recent Central Intelligence
Agency estimate was just under three million.
While Armenia has never been a model republic, the Feb. 19 presidential
election and aftermath were particularly disturbing moments. Principal
opposition parties questioned the legitimacy of both the process and
results, which gave the ruling Republican Party of Armenia’s candidate,
Serge Sarkisian, a majority of the votes cast. Subsequent acts included
the beating and killing of protestors, arrests of opposition leaders,
a three-week-long state of emergency which included blocking access
to the Interet and closing of opposition newspapers – and a continuing
ban on opposition rallies in the capital of Yerevan. These repressive
measures earned a rebuke from Human Rights Watch, as well as the
White House and the European Union presidency. Former president and
opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian described the vote and
subsequent mayhem as "the rape of our democracy."
Regrettably, the reaction to the ongoing political crisis in Armenia
from its Diaspora has been tepid, at best. The
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Armenian Assembly of America released a few unremarkable statements,
including one expressing the need for the violence to end and rule
of law to be followed – but not assigning any blame. The typically
more outspoken Armenian National Committee of America posted even
less – a single neutral statement about the crisis could be located
deep in the bowels of its Web site. (On the other hand, references to
genocide and need to further increase American foreign aid to Armenia
were tattooed all over the group’s homepage.) There were a few days
of scattered protests at the Armenian Consulate in Beverly Hills but
little else was organized.
In contrast, powerful organizational resources remain mostly focused
on emotional issues that have no impact on the lives of ordinary men,
women, and children in Armenia.
Armenian-American groups spend an inordinate amount of time and
resources pushing supporters in Congress to pass a resolution calling
on the White House to recognize the Ottoman attacks on Armenians
during World War I as "genocide," a charge vehemently challenged by
most Turks and Turkish-Americans. This effort has been pushed for
years while not even recognizing the close strategic relationship of
the United States and Turkey. This latest, however, was particularly
damaging to the United States at a time when the Pentagon relies
heavily on Turkish support for ongoing operations in Afghanistan and
Iraq. (Little wonder then that Roll Call political analyst Stuart
Rothenberg called the now-dormant resolution one of his five nominees
for "The Worst Political Idea of 2007.")
In the weeks following the bloodshed in the streets of Yeravan,
the Assembly and ANCA repeatedly attempted to varyingly justify or
explain away the Armenian military’s attack on the armed forces of
Azerbaijan on the border of the internationally recognized occupied
Azerbaijani territory of Karabakh. Such an action typically befits
a regime trying to deflect attention from its domestic troubles.
The organizations also banded with sympathetic senators to torpedo
the nomination of Dick Hoagland to be ambassador to Armenia, all
because the career diplomat did not cave in and deviate from White
House policy by proclaiming the tragic events in the Ottman Empire
as "genocide." President Bush recently nominated Marie Yanukovitch,
another longtime foreign service officer, for the position. When she
refuses to deviate from U.S. policy, will her candidacy be derailed
too? And how exactly do Assembly and ANCA arrive at the conclusion
that not having an American ambassador in Yerevan since 2006 helps
the Armenian people?
The time for these passionate supporters of Armenia in Los Angeles
and elsewhere to grow up and play a leadership role on behalf
of their ancestral homeland is long overdue. They must pressure
President Sarkisian, and others who are brought into the new
government, to expeditiously enact meaningful economic reforms,
promote democratization, undertake tangible steps to resolve the
Karabakh dispute, and find common ground with Turkey on the tragic
events from nearly a century ago.
Jason Epstein is the President of Washington, DC-based Southfive
Strategies, LLC. He was an advisor to the Turkish Embassy from 2002
to 2007. (First published on pajamasmedia.com)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
