ANCA SHARPLY CRITICIZED TURKEY’S LOBBYIST
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.03.2006 23:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey’s top Washington, DC lobbyist, former
Louisiana Congressman Bob Livingston, in perhaps his most strident
attack to date, has accused Armenian Americans of seeking to impose a
“tyranny of the minority” by urging the Congress to adopt human rights
legislation concerning the Armenian Genocide, according to documents
obtained this week by the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA).”It’s truly the height of hypocrisy for a paid foreign agent
for Turkey – a government that violates the rights of its citizens
on a wholesale basis – to try to diminish the role that American
citizens play in the formulation of our nation’s foreign policy,”
said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
In letters sent to Congressional offices last September, prior
to the House International Relations Committee’s consideration of
Armenian Genocide legislation, Livingston, escalated his rhetoric to
unprecedented levels, arguing, in his capacity as a paid agent of a
foreign government, that he believed the measure “cater[s] to a small
minority of citizens promoting the narrow goals of the minority at
the expense of America’s broader interest.” He went on, in an example
of overstatement rare even by Washington, DC standards, to contend
that Armenian Genocide legislation “is the truest expression of the
tyranny of the minority.” The panel rejected Livingston’s attack,
voting 40 to 7 to approve the legislation.