FICKLE ARMENIAN LOBBY NOT SO POWERFUL
Aliyah Fridman
news.az
Feb 9 2010
Azerbaijan
Adil Baguirov News.Az interviews Dr Adil Baguirov, managing director
and co-founder of the US Azeris Network (USAN).
What is USAN doing about the United States census in 2010?
The US Azeris Network (USAN), as well as our sister organization
the US Turkic Network (USTN), became the first-ever not only
Azerbaijani-American, but also Turkic-American organizations to be
recognized officially as partners by the US Census Bureau for the 2010
Census. We immediately started raising awareness and promoting this
partnership as well as the need to participate in the Census among the
Azerbaijani-American and Turkic-American community. We will continue
this in the next few months before and after the census starts.
US First Assistant Secretary of State James Steinberg thinks that
the Karabakh conflict can be settled on the basis of two principles
of international law. He said during his recent visit to Yerevan:
"I believe that the simultaneous use of the right of nations to
self-determination and territorial integrity is possible." Doesn’t
this contradict Washington’s official position on the recognition of
Karabakh as Azerbaijani land?
There is no problem between the two principles, and that’s why
Azerbaijan agrees to resolve the occupation of Karabakh and other
lands of Azerbaijan based on the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, which
stipulated both of the principles, since they don’t interfere with
each other; indeed, the principle of territorial integrity trumps
the principle of self-determination. More specifically, there is a
principle of international law uti possidetis juris, which in the
opinion of such eminent international law experts as Prof. Malcolm
Shaw applies directly to all post-Soviet countries, specifically to
Armenia and Azerbaijan. This principle postulates that all newly
formed sovereign states should have the same borders that they
had before. Additional in-depth research and commentary have been
provided by top Azerbaijani legal experts, such as Dr Vugar Seidov,
Dr Fuad Ahundov, Tofiq Musayev (LL.M) and M. Mammadov (LL.M). There is
simply no doubt that international law is very clear on this issue, and
it’s on Azerbaijan’s side. Karabakh, whether Mountainous, or Lowland,
along with Kerki (an exclave of Naxcivan), the two exclaves of the
Gazakh region of Azerbaijan and its villages that are also occupied
by Armenia, are all de jure part of Azerbaijan, have been recognized
as such by the UN, and must be returned to Azerbaijan.
Leaders of the US Azerbaijani diaspora recently met a group of New
York senators to discuss Azerbaijan. It is the third year that USAN
has been involved in such a meeting. Is it possible to talk of real
interest of US law-makers, especially Democrats, in the problems of
Azerbaijan despite the strong Armenian resistance?
I would view the importance of such regular meetings as an affirmation
of our community’s growing political activism, and as a consequence,
the inevitable noting of this by the members of Congress, who see
us more and more at various venues and are greatly impressed by the
depth and quality of our arguments, by the education that we provide
to them on the issues that we consider very important for us, as well
as for regional and international peace and the prestige and moral
standing of the United States. But the number one rule for any member
of Congress is that "all politics is local", hence, if the Armenian
community is more active (for any reason) driving its point across,
then members of Congress will be more prone to listen to it. It’s
somewhat understandable that a member of Congress would have a
pro-Armenian and anti-Azerbaijani position if he/she is visited more
often by the Armenian community or receives thousands of dollars in
political contributions from the Armenian lobby. Unfortunately, every
single one of such members of Congress are affected by this scourge
of the political process – Armenian special interest groups, a lobby,
that buys access and forces members to take a certain position.
US Congressmen are planning to discuss the resolution on the "Armenian
genocide" in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. Will this resolution be adopted
and how may it influence the recognition of the "genocide" by the
White House?
There is a possibility, considering that all the Democratic leadership
of Congress – Speaker Pelosi, Con. Berman, Sen. Reid, Sen. Durbin,
Sen. Menendez, Sen. Kerry – are on the record strongly supporting the
Armenian community in general, and all of their agenda in particular.
At the same time, elections in November are expected to create a
big change, with Republicans retaking control of many seats in the
US Senate and US House (the two chambers of the US Congress), and
American voters get angry when Congress is preoccupied with foreign
history instead of creating jobs and improving the economy. Obviously,
considering the economic weight of Turkey, and the huge bilateral trade
between the US and Turkey (Turkey is the United States’ 39th largest
goods trading partner), bilateral trade has been steadily growing
over the last 15 years. US-Turkey two way goods trade totalled $14.6
billion in 2008 and the US would not want that burgeoning trade to come
to a standstill. But there is also something interesting happening
this election cycle in US politics, just like in 2008. Back then,
an Armenian candidate, Dr Jack Kevorkian, affectionately known as
Doctor Death, decided to challenge Congressman Knollenberg and take
his seat in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that Rep.
Knollenberg was a co-chairman of the Armenian Caucus and a big friend
of the Armenian community. In this interesting twist of misfortune,
both cancelled out each others’ efforts and lost the elections to
another candidate, Gary Peters. Also, back then the Armenian community
supported and endorsed the then presidential candidate, Sen. Obama
during the primary in California and other states, but Sen. Obama
actually lost those primaries to Sen. Clinton, in spite of the support
from the Armenian community. It shows that even in California the
500,000-strong Armenian community cannot "move elections" unless they
are local elections centering on Glendale. This year, the same thing
has happened – in the special elections in Massachusetts, the Armenian
community supported Democrat Martha Coakley, whilst the Azerbaijani
community, led by the efforts of the USAN "2008 Outstanding Leadership
Award" recipient Dr John Vafai, who spearheaded a political initiative
"Azerbaijanis for Scott Brown", supported the underdog, Republican
nominee Scott Brown. Mr Brown won and was sworn in last week.
Likewise, this year, despite all the dedicated support and service
that Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has given to
the Armenian community, they have officially endorsed his opponent,
Jerry Tarkanian, who will try to send Sen. Reid into retirement.
This is reminiscent of 1996, when the Armenian community saw the polls
and realized that their favourite and officially endorsed Sen. Dole
was inevitably losing the presidential race to Bill Clinton, they
switched their support within one month of the elections. Of course,
Bill Clinton was easily re-elected for a second term. Later, during
the first term of President George W. Bush the Armenian community also
tried to show its relevance and alleged that they supported Bush’s
candidacy, but Bush’s trusted advisor and "architect" Karl Rove quickly
shot down that feeble allegation to the public embarrassment of the
Armenian lobby. The Armenian community "retaliated" by supporting
Sen. Kerry in 2004, but of course their support once again proved to
be non-essential, and President Bush won. All this shows how ungrateful
and not-so-powerful the Armenian lobby really is, and how the combined
Turkic-American community and our friends can stop its destructive
activity which counters US national interests and regional stability.