AZERBAIJAN: DIASPORA ORGANIZATION TRIES TO COUNTER ARMENIAN-AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN WASHINGTON
Jessica Powley Hayden

Eurasianet

May 8, 2009

A new front has opened in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict and it
is centered in Washington, DC. Frustrated by the effectiveness
of Armenian-American advocacy groups to shape debates in the
United States, Baku is now looking to its diaspora for a little
public-relations support.

Last year, a group of Azeri-Americans founded the US-Azeri
Network (USAN), which advertises itself as a grassroots advocacy
organization. The new, Washington, DC-based group hopes to connect
Azeri-American voters to promote a pro-Azerbaijan agenda in the
United States.

That agenda is a point-by-point refutation of policies sought by
the Armenian-American advocacy groups: increased aid to Azerbaijan;
decreased aid to Armenia; the elimination of humanitarian aid to
the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh; the immediate withdrawal of
Armenian forces from Karabakh; and recognition of massacres perpetrated
against Azerbaijanis by ethnic Armenians in 1918, marked in Azerbaijan
as the "Day of the Azerbaijani Genocide."

USAN casts itself in the role of the underdog. "[Azeri-Americans]
see that political activism can go a long way… [W]e can achieve a
lot and ‘compete’ with the big boys like the Armenian diaspora and
its lobby," commented USAN Executive Director Adil Baguirov.

It will be an uphill challenge. If garnering aid from the United
States were a competition, Armenia would clearly be winning. From
1992 to 2007, Armenia received almost $2 billion worth of assistance
from the United States ($1,745,930), while Azerbaijan came away with
about a billion less: $743,400,000.

In addition to lobbying for limits on aid to Azerbaijan, Armenia has
invested substantial resources into lobbying US legislators and the
president to recognize as genocide the Ottoman Turks’ slaughter of
an estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in 1915.

Armenian advocacy and lobby groups also have a long history of
promoting Armenian policies among American lawmakers. Armenian
political action committees (PACs) contributed nearly $200,000 to
various races across the US in the 2008 election cycle, according to
Federal Election Commission documents.

Rough estimates put the size of the Armenian-American population at
nearly 1 million.

Azeri-Americans are less organized, young, far fewer in estimated
number (some 400,000, according to USAN), and have not had as much
success in getting their agenda before US policymakers.

In meetings on Capitol Hill last summer, Azerbaijani parliamentarians
were told: "Look, Armenians are my constituents and I am accountable
to them," recounted Petro Morgos who runs the parliamentary program at
DAI (Development Alternatives, Inc.), an international civil-society
development organization, and attended the meetings.

USAN believes that American politicians are not getting the whole
story. In addressing the American public, USAN’s Baguirov states that
his organization covers what it terms "crimes against humanity and
genocidal acts perpetrated by Armenians against Azerbaijani, Turkish,
Kurdish, Jewish, and other civilians in the Caucasus and East Anatolia
since the 19th century, culminating more recently with the Khojaly
Massacre in 1992."

Hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians were killed – according to Baku,
by Armenian forces – trying to escape from the village of Khojaly
in Karabakh during the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the
territory. The Armenian government blames Azerbaijani forces for
their deaths.

Azerbaijan’s emphasis on informing foreigners about alleged acts of
Armenian aggression can also be seen in Baku. In April, Fazil Mustafa,
a member of the Milli Majlis, proposed creating a genocide museum
in Baku, emphasizing its value in educating foreign guests. A museum
already exists in Yerevan that chronicles the events of 1915.

The recent push to energize Azeri-Americans to promote Azerbaijan’s
interests appears to be the result of frustration within Azerbaijan
itself. In 2006, President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenian-American
groups in the United States for distorting Azerbaijani history. Aliyev,
at the time, suggested that Azerbaijan would cultivate its own
diaspora.

Since Aliyev’s speech, an Azerbaijani consulate has been opened in
Los Angeles. Consul General Elin Suleymanov explained that Los Angeles
was chosen in part because of the large Armenian Diaspora located in
California. "We wanted Azerbaijan’s voice to be heard on the West
Coast and for public opinion not to be shaped by the Armenian side
alone," he told EurasiaNet.

Another diaspora-based organization, the Azerbaijan-American
Council, was opened in California in 2006 with the "primary purpose
of facilitating active integration of Azerbaijani-Americans into
U.S. public life and strengthening Azerbaijani-American identity."

Suleymanov, however, cautions that focusing too heavily on "narrow
ethnicity-based ideology" is counterproductive to achieving peace in
the region. "Unfortunately, some in the Armenian community still focus
on the past and see our region in simplified, confrontational terms,"
he said.

"I think focusing on the future, not that past – without, of course,
either forgetting or ignoring the latter – is the best way forward
for our part of the world," Suleymanov said.

USAN’s public relations campaign to bring attention to the past,
though, is beginning to pay dividends. Several members of the US House
of Representatives have made official remarks in the Congressional
Record commemorating the Khojaly massacre. Nevada Governor Jim
Gibbons released a proclamation recognizing March 31 as "Azerbaijani
Remembrance Day."

The Nevada proclamation sparked a firestorm in the Armenian-American
community, which objected to the proclamation’s definition of
Azerbaijan as including Nagorno-Karabakh. "The Armenian-American
community throughout the state of Nevada is shocked that Governor
Gibbons was so easily misled and manipulated by foreign interest
groups representing the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey and
their high-priced lobbyists," stated Razmik Ablo, spokesman for the
Armenian National Committee.

The "high-priced lobbyist" tag is one that is commonly used against
USAN. But Baguirov claims his organization has a "very modest operating
budget which is fully raised from our grassroots." He declined to
give an exact figure. Combined with its sister organization, the US
Turkic Network, USAN claims it has 15,000 members.

While Baguirov is optimistic that USAN’s influence over American
policy will increase with time, it concedes that, as a numbers game,
diaspora Armenians will continue to exert greater influence in American
politics. "Obviously, we are the David in this story, but we are very
content with what we were able to achieve in such a short time-span,"
Baguirov said.

Editor’s Note: Jessica Powley Hayden is a freelance reporter based
in Baku.