Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Telephone: (818) 500-1918
Facsimile: (818) 246-7353
PRESS RELEASE
July 2, 2009
Contact: Haig Hovsepian
Tel: (818) 500-1918
Students Engage Ambassador Yovanovitch on America’s Foreign Policy
ENCINO, CA — On Friday, June 26th, the United States Ambassador to
Armenia, Marie Yovanovitch participated in a town hall meeting hosted by the
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Church at Ferrahian High School’s Avedissian
Hall in Encino, California. Designed to educate and inform Ambassador
Yovanovitch about the Armenian-Americans concerns in connection with US
foreign policy, the event was one of several community engagements that
included public forums with Armenian-Americans in New York and Boston. A
broad cross-section of the community attended the event on Friday to express
their opinions and concerns regarding US-Armenia relations to the newly
appointed Ambassador. Present and participating in the public forum were
several current and former Armenian National Committee interns and
volunteers.
"This meeting provided a valuable opportunity to actively engage in the
US-Armenia dialogue," said Hovsep Hajibekyan, a University of California,
Berkeley senior currently interning with the Armenian National
Committee-Western Region (ANC-WR), who attended the town-hall meeting. "It
was a rare chance to meet our Ambassador to Armenia and address our
thoughts, concerns and frustrations directly to her. There was clearly high
interest in today’s event, judging from the packed hall, and that is very
encouraging."
After her opening remarks, Yovanovitch responded to many pointed questions
from the audience, many of which were critical of the US position on
recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the Obama Administration’s proposed
reduction of aid to Armenia for 2010.
"I think there are many disappointments and lingering doubts in the
Armenian-American community regarding the new Administration and its
policies in the Caucuses region," commented Christina Toroyan, a volunteer
with the ANC-WR and a student at California State University, Northridge.
"Today’s tough questions and the audience’s uneasy mood reflected those
doubts," she said, recalling an audience member who asked the Ambassador to
identify a single moral or political advantage that resulted from America’s
continued refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. During the town hall
event, Yovanovitch responded by insisting that President Obama has gone
further than his predecessor with his April 24, 2009 statement.
The Ambassador often prefaced her responses with apologies and
acknowledgments that the responses she would give would most likely be
unsatisfactory to the public before which she stood. During her remarks,
Ambassador Yovanovitch never utilized the word "genocide" and struggled to
explain how the US Administration favored increasing direct aid to
Azerbaijan and Georgia, in spite of both countries’ flawed democratic
credentials and their expressed belligerence against their own ethnic
Armenian communities.
Shant Taslakian, a former ANCA Leo Sarkisian Intern and law student at the
University of California, Hastings was not surprised by the Ambassador’s
equivocal answers. "I wish she was a little more candid and clear in her
answers, especially regarding the decrease of aid to Armenia, but as a
diplomat who simply represents US views her style was expected."
Hajibekyan agreed, "Yovanovitch only articulated the ambiguities that exist
in US policy on such questions as aid to Armenia and the genocide issue. Our
hope is that by engaging the Ambassador, we can make our voices heard and
affect change on higher levels of the government."
Community members also expressed their frustration with President Obama?s
failure to properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. During his
presidential campaign, then-candidate Obama had won overwhelming support
from the Armenian-American community with a strongly worded promise to
unequivocally refer to the Armenian Genocide as such. Since taking office in
2009, President Obama has yet to fulfill that campaign promise.
"Genocide is a powerful legal term that properly characterizes the events of
1915," said Shant Taslakian who voted for Obama in 2008. "The president had
a great opportunity to clearly state his position and follow his election
pledge. Instead, he prevaricated. Yovanoitch’s poor answers today reflected
the Administration’s policies."
Hrag Melkonian, a student at the College of the Canyons and an activist with
the Armenian Youth Federation, had even stronger words for the President.
"The fact that our President has constantly used words such as ‘justice’,
‘equality’, and ‘truth’ in his speeches, but refused to properly
characterize the Armenian Genocide is unacceptable and shames me as an
American," Melkonian explained.
"This amounts to defying everything that he and this country have said and
is meant to stand for," adding that he hopes the Ambassador will convey the
community’s disappointment with the Administration when she holds meetings
in Washington, DC.
The town-hall meeting on Friday was the first time Yovanovitch met with the
Armenian-American community of the greater Los Angeles area in her official
capacity as Ambassador. Yovanovitch’s nomination was confirmed in August
2008 by the U.S. Senate. The previous nominee, Richard Hoagland, was
withdrawn following his controversial statements denying the Armenian
Genocide during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings. Yovanovitch is
scheduled conclude her visit to the United Sates with high-level meetings
with officials from the State Department and the White House.
"It is our right and obligation as concerned Americans to have a dialogue
with our government regarding issues of concern to our community," noted
Hrag Melkonian following the meeting with the Ambassador. "I am pleased the
community, specifically young Armenian-Americans, took advantage of this
opportunity and asked our nation’s ranking diplomat in Armenia direct and
important questions regarding America’s foreign policy."