THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
25 Sep 2008
Armenia

The authors of the annual report on the "International Religious
Freedom" believe that in May and June 2008, "Hayots Ashkharh" and
"Golos Armenii" Armenian newspapers and the first channel of the Public
Television and Radio Company displayed anti-Semitist sentiments in
their publications and broadcasts.

Let’s try to understand what happened in reality. The publications
and broadcasts discussed in the State Department report on the
"International Religious Freedom" definitely refer to the mediation
of the "Big East" powerful Jewish Masonic organization, "The
Jewish-American Committee" and other structures and individuals,
as well as the sums of tens of millions of Dollars spent on the
pre-election campaign in our country.

All that gives rise to the following questions:

First: Has L. Ter-Petrosyan or his closest circles refuted those
facts so far?

Second: Have the above-mentioned organizations and individuals ever
been dissatisfied with the "unfounded accusations" ascribed to them?

Third: Have these facts of interfering in the internal affairs of a
sovereign state received a relevant assessment by the State Department
– the Number 1 specialist in this sphere, which now acts in support
of the sovereignty of Georgia, making relevant s tatements in this
connection every week?

So, what’s the matter?

In none of our articles have we ever published critical statements
either about Israel or the Jewish people. We never did anything of
the kind even at the moments when we saw the Israeli flag swaying
on the Theatrical Square during the rallies of the opposition which
was struggling for power. So, what was happening was an obvious
political provocation. If our country weren’t a democratic state and
our authorities and people weren’t extremely tolerant, there would
really be concrete manifestations of anti-Semitism.

And after all that happened, after the opposition tried to launch
attack on the government hoisting the Israeli flag, did any Jew suffer
in Armenia or was anyone vilified or insulted by rude words on account
of his/her ethnic origin and religious affiliation?

The answer is quite clear. Those who applied to the Jewish
organizations with the purpose of overthrowing the Government received
relevant sums from them and, as a sign of gratitude, swayed the
Israeli flag on the square. But because no anti-Semitist sentiments
were observed in Armenia even after all that happened, it is obvious
that instead of punishing the culprit, innocent people are now being
held accountable.

That’s to say, instead of recording the obvious facts of interfering
in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and demanding that the
Arm enian and foreign authors of such attempts respect the independence
of Armenia, the State Department is trying to accuse us of protecting
ourselves by using legal and quite civilized methods.

If, some time in future, the wife of the Armenian President appears to
be a Russian or Chinese and receive financial assistance in the amount
of several millions of Dollars from Russian or Chinese organizations
with the purpose of overthrowing the authorities in Armenia,
will the State Department express concern about the anti-Russian or
anti-Chinese sentiments allegedly existing in our country? Definitely,
it won’t. Moreover, the things will go just the other way about.

Mildly speaking, we are dealing with an illiterate attempt
of falsifying the content of the universal accusation called
anti-Semitism and using it as a lever of political pressure. If its
authors tried to go into the heart of the matter, they would find out
that anti-Semitism, as a political phenomenon, is a manifestation of
aggression or intolerance against the Jewish nation vs. an attempt
of resisting the obvious aggression against any country with the help
some representative of this particular nation.

And such attempt, as we know, is characterized as a lawful resistance
to the Jewish-Masonic or Zionist ambitions, and by the way, this
practice is common in the United States as well.