Team Obama takes shape

First published in December 6, 2008 Armenian Reporter

Obama administration’s national security team takes shape
by Emil Sanamyan
Hillary Clinton with Barack Obama.

Washington, - President-elect Barack Obama will appoint his main Democratic primary election opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York as secretary of state; keep the serving Bush administration Defense Secretary Robert Gates; and nominate retired Gen. James Jones as national security advisor.

Mr. Obama made these plans public on December 1, seven weeks before he is set to be inaugurated as president of the United States.

Asked to comment about the choices in terms of Armenian concerns, Ross Vartian, executive director of the U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee (USAPAC), said it will be up to President Obama to make key decisions and for the officials he appoints to implement them.

"Going forward, we will have a president who has repeatedly and clearly pledged to affirm the Armenian Genocide, achieve a Karabakh peace settlement based on the principle of self-determination, and expand U.S. relations with Armenia," Mr. Vartian told the Armenian Reporter.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who serves as chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, also has a strong Senate record on the affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

Sen. Clinton as secretary of state

Armenian-American organizations, including the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Armenian Assembly of America, welcomed Sen. Clinton's selection, citing her record in the Senate and pledges while a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet, anonymous Turkish officials have reportedly also welcomed the president-elect's choice. According to the newspaper, Mrs. Clinton is seen in Turkey "as an experienced and centrist figure with a positive understanding of Turkey."

As a senator, Mrs. Clinton supported congressional measures to affirm the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide and signed letters to President George W. Bush urging him to do the same.

A statement issued by Mrs. Clinton's election campaign on January 24, 2008, said, "I believe the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide." She pledged to "recognize the Armenian Genocide" if elected president.

In that statement, Mrs. Clinton also promised "to expand and improve U.S.-Armenia relations," including an increase in U.S. aid "to Armenia and the people of Nagorno Karabagh," as well as helping reach a "fair and democratic resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict."

Sec. Gates as secretary of defense

President-elect Obama has also asked Defense Secretary Gates to stay in office for at least another year. Mr. Gates was appointed by President Bush following the November 2006 midterm congressional elections, replacing the controversial Donald Rumsfeld.

Last year, Mr. Gates participated in the Bush administration's lobbying effort in opposition to the House of Representatives' resolution on the Armenian Genocide.

In March 2007 Defense Secretary Gates co-signed a letter with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) arguing that passage of the House resolution would "significantly endanger U.S. national security interests."

And in October of last year, Mr. Gates told a Pentagon news conference that a resolution, if passed, would damage U.S.-Turkey relations "perhaps beyond repair" and "do real harm" to U.S. troops in Iraq, The Associated Press reported at the time.

In the same period, Mr. Gates spoke shortly after his meeting with Serge Sargsian, who was Armenia's prime minister at the time; both officials said after the meeting that they did not discuss the resolution. (Armenian officials have historically refused to weigh in on congressional debates, although they have broadly welcomed international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.)

In those comments, Mr. Gates also said that he "worked [the Armenian Genocide] issue" while deputy national security advisor to President George H. W. Bush in 1990, when a Senate resolution was championed by then-Minority leader Robert Dole (R.-Kan.)

Gen. Jones as national security advisor

Retired Marine Corps General James Jones will serve as the incoming president's chief aide on national security matters. As national security advisor, Gen. Jones will coordinate the work of various agencies such as the State Department and the Pentagon.

Like President-elect Obama, Gen. Jones spent much of his childhood abroad, in his case in France. But graduating from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1966, Mr. Jones switched to a military career and service in the Vietnam War.

Gen. Jones last served as commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from 2003 to 2006. In that capacity he worked with other NATO governments and militaries, including those of Turkey and NATO partner states in the Caucasus.

In a June 2003 interview with Armenia's Mediamax news agency, Gen. Jones highlighted the importance of Armenia's hosting of the Cooperative Best Effort exercises in the NATO Partnership for Peace framework.

And in September 2004, Gen. Jones canceled a similar exercise in Azerbaijan after its government barred Armenian officers from attending.

In his March 2005 testimony to the Senate Armed Service Committee, Gen. Jones spoke of Armenia's region as "increasingly important to [U.S.] interests." Calling Armenia's region a "pivot point" for the states of Central Asia and Middle East, he highlighted the importance of Caspian energy resources and the Caucasus serving as a transit point for air-delivered supplies to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Samantha Power is back

Samantha Power (on right) during a presentation of Carla Garapedian's (on left) Armenian Genocide documentary at Harvard in 2007. Harvard News Office

Washington, - Harvard University professor Samantha Power, who resigned last March from the Obama campaign after calling his then-rival Sen. Clinton "a monster," is now back working for President-elect Obama's transition team.

A close Obama advisor, Ms. Power has been a strong supporter of Armenian Genocide affirmation. In a video address released by the ANCA last January, she encouraged Armenian-Americans to support Mr. Obama as someone who has a "willingness to challenge conventional wisdom and conventional Washington," and when it came to the Armenian Genocide "call a ‘spade a spade'; and to speak the truth about it."

According to www.change.gov, cited by Politico on November 28, Ms. Power is part of the President-elect's team now studying State Department personnel, operations, and policy, and working to "ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in."

It is unclear what, if any, formal position Ms. Power may be offered in the Obama administration.

PM Serge Sargsian begins U.S. visit

First published in October 20, 2007 Armenian Reporter

Prime Minister Serge Sargsian begins visit to the United States
Meets Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Gates
Thanks members of Congress for supporting Genocide resolution
by Emil Sanamyan

WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Serge Sargsian of Armenia, who arrived here on October 18, expressed his country’s gratitude to congressional leaders for their support for the Armenian Genocide resolution.

“We are thankful to those members of Congress who voted in favor of the resolution’s passage” in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Sargsian told the Armenian Reporter. He said the issue had not come up in his meeting with Defense Secretary Bob Gates. Their talks on October 18 were focused on U.S.–Armenia military cooperation.

Last week, Mr. Gates along with other Bush administration officials spoke out against the resolution, arguing that its passage may result in the suspension, by Turkey, of military cooperation with the United States, and interfere with logistical supplies to U.S.–led forces in Iraq.

The forces include a small contingent from the Republic of Armenia. According to the Armenian Embassy in Washington, Mr. Gates thanked Mr. Sargsian for Armenia’s contribution to the U.S. effort in Iraq, and the sides discussed a possible peacekeeping deployment by Armenia in Afghanistan.

On October 18 Mr. Sargsyan also visited with Vice President Dick Cheney and the executive director of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Ambassador
John Danilovich. Speaking to the press following his meeting with Armenia’s prime minister, Mr. Danilovich said that the MCC is “very happy” about how the five-year $235 million program is being implemented in Armenia. [See page A5 for a story on the implementation of the program.]

“We are pleased with the progress Armenia is making in all respects,” Mr. Danilovich said. He added that the MCC looks forward to seeing Armenia’s presidential elections in early 2008 being conducted “in a positive way.” Funding for the program is contingent on Armenia’s continuing compliance with MCC eligibility criteria, which include ongoing improvements in the conduct of elections.

The program began last year and is designed to reduce poverty by developing Armenia’s rural areas.

Armenia qualified for the program because of its government’s relatively liberal democratic and economic policies and its efforts to improve health and education. Among former Soviet republics Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova have also been found eligible to sign MCC assistance compacts with the U.S. government.

On October 19 and 20, Mr. Sargsian will be in Los Angeles, where he will meet members of the Armenian community. He will then return to Washington on October 21 to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the biannual session of the U.S.–Armenia Task Force on economic cooperation. He will also hold talks with congressional leaders and senior State Department officials.

The bank and IMF have provided developmental and fiscal support to Armenia with programs totaling over $1 billion over the past decade. The organizations’ low-interest loans account for the lion’s share of Armenia’s $1.2 billion foreign debt.
U.S. government aid programs to Armenia have totaled $1.7 billion over fifteen years. Last year, U.S.–Armenia trade amounted to $127 million out of Armenia’s total $3.2 billion foreign-trade turnover. That put the United States fifth among Armenia’s largest trading partners, behind Russia, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Genocide resolution at "crunch point," U.S.' Iraq policy

This was originally published in August 4, 2007 Armenian Reporter.

From Washington, in brief
by Emil Sanamyan

Genocide resolution seen approaching “crunch point”

With elections in Turkey wrapping up, the House Resolution on the Armenian Genocide (H. Res. 106) will approach a “crunch point quite soon,” according to Alan Makovsky, a senior staff member on the House Foreign Relations Committee. But he anticipated no action until the August recess was over.

Mr. Makovsky said this in his personal capacity in response to a question from former Congressman and long-time Turkish lobbyist Stephen Solarz during a July 23 discussion at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), an audio of which is available on its web site.

Prior to his congressional appointment, Mr. Makovsky headed WINEP’s Turkey program and in that capacity he publicly opposed the 2000 House Genocide resolution, according to reports in the Turkish media at the time.

Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Majority leader Steny Hoyer have had a “long-time personal commitment on this issue,” Mr. Makovsky noted, and “if they had their way [H. Res. 106] would pass.” At the same time, the Bush Administration has been intensively lobbying against the measure. The senior congressional official recalled that two types of arguments have been made against the resolution. The first argument is “strategic,” in terms of potential consequences for U.S.-Turkish relations, and, the second one is that of timing linked to elections in Turkey.

“We [the U.S.] don’t want to become a factor in the elections,” Mr. Makovsky said, and “that point resonated with a lot of people [in Congress].” Now that the Turkish electoral process is about to wrap up (the general election was held on July 22 and a parliamentary vote for president is expected in the next several weeks), that second argument is about to become irrelevant.

Also participating in the WINEP discussion, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza thanked Mr. Makovsky for referring to the Administration’s work in opposing the resolution and promised that it “will continue that approach.” Mr. Bryza reiterated the State Department’s position that it “do[es] not deny anything one way or another” but believes that “those horrible events” should be addressed through dialogue between Armenians and Turks. “How do you do that, I don’t know,” he said but added that that is the approach favored by the Administration.

Referring to “somewhat ominous” comments by Mr. Makovsky that “things are going move” on the resolution, Mr. Bryza argued that “we really need something from the Turkish government that… moves towards normalization of relations with Armenia, it is time for that to happen.”

As of this week, 224 of 435 members of Congress have officially endorsed H. Res. 106. Mr. Makovsky said that the fact that more than half of the House members back the measure was “psychologically significant, but in itself does not mean anything operationally.”

Still, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz said that the resolution was very likely to pass in the House after Congress’ August recess, the Turkish Daily News reported on July 26.

A vote on the resolution depends on a decision by the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives.

Be watching…

Our readers in the Washington area take note that this Sunday, August 5 at 8 p.m. the local PBS affiliate WETA channel 26 will be re-airing Andrew Goldberg’s film The Armenian Genocide. This documentary first aired on PBS nationally last year, when it received critical acclaim both in the United States and abroad. For more information connect at www.weta.com.

Reputed plans for U.S.-Turkish “secret operation” against Kurds leaked

Speaking at the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy on July 23, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza hinted that in the immediate future the U.S. is likely to take action against anti-Turkey Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. Mr. Bryza agreed with Turkey’s claims that the U.S. has not done enough to clamp down on forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, usually identified as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who Ankara has accused of fueling a growing anti-government insurgency within Turkey.

Both the military and the government in Turkey have threatened to invade Iraqi Kurdistan unless the U.S. takes measures of its own. “The attitude has shifted here in
Washington,” Mr. Bryza revealed. “We have to produce concrete results and I’m confident we are going to soon… in the next few weeks or months.”

In his July 30 Washington Post column Bob Novak offered details of one potential such action. According to Novak’s sources, during the previous week Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman gave select members of Congress a confidential briefing on plans, in Novak’s words, “for a covert operation of U.S. Special Forces to help the Turks neutralize the PKK. They would behead the guerilla organization by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years.”

But, according to the Post columnist, the idea was not well received by at least some in Congress. Its opponents believe that any such U.S. action would undermine progress made in Iraqi Kurdistan, the only stable part of the country. Predictably, U.S. and Turkish officials declined to comment on Novak’s claim.

Most commentators suggested that the leak intended to scuttle any such operation. The
Administration-friendly Washington Times, in its editorial on July 31 blasted the unidentified congressional sources that leaked the contents of Mr. Edelman’s briefing. The Times concluded: “now that it has been made public, the operation has been severely compromised – if it hasn’t been forced off the table altogether.”

But mindful of the Administration’s penchant for secrecy and tendency not to share information with Congress, Blake Hounshell, web editor for the Foreign Policy magazine, wondered on his blog if Mr. Edelman’s briefing to Congress was made with an intention for its details to be leaked. “So perhaps the plan was simply being floated in order to buy more time with the Turks, and Congress was used in order to kill it,” Mr.
Hounshell speculated.

Whatever the case may be, senior Turkish officials continue to threaten to invade Iraqi Kurdistan, although Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan acknowledged earlier this summer (see this page in Jue 16 Reporter) that the Kurdish resistance is based mostly in Turkey rather than in Iraq. Turkey’s real concern appears to be with the existence of a defacto Kurdish state on its border.

A referendum on the status of the Kurdish-populated and oil-rich city of Kirkuk, expected to result in its unification with Iraqi Kurdistan and opposed by Turkey, may yet lead to a fresh escalation in tensions if it takes place as is currently planned before the end of this year.

Think tank study argues for Iraq partition

Frustration over continuing sectarian violence in U.S.-occupied Iraq has sent Washington policy-makers scrambling for policy ideas that could provide for a long-term stability in Iraq. In recent years, a view that Iraq can no longer function as a centralized state has increasingly gained ground.

Last month, a prominent national security scholar and an experienced conflict-management practitioner issued “The Case for Soft Partition of Iraq,” a policy paper in which its authors Michael O’Hanlon and Edward Joseph argue that such an approach “would involve the Iraqis, with the assistance of the international community, dividing their country into three main regions. Each would assume primary responsibility for its own security and governance, as Iraqi Kurdistan already does.”

The paper was published by the Brookings Institution – one of the more respected and less partisan think tanks in Washington – and received considerable attention both in Congress and in the media.

Nonetheless, the plan has also been criticized because it would entail continued U.S. occupation of Iraq at the current levels for at least another two years, as well as major population relocation within Iraq, certain to cause additional humanitarian crises.

U.S. policy initiatives are frequently vetted through think tank studies, although only few of them become blueprints for government action. A policy paper prepared last year by the pro-Administration American Enterprise Institute, which argued for a “surge” in U.S. troop presence in Iraq as a way to contain the sectarian violence in the country, was one such example. The “surge” policy has been in effect from early this year and has received mixed reviews so far.

This September, the U.S. military commander in charge of the plan is expected to report on whether the approach is working and based on the outcome of that report whether it should be modified or abandoned in favor of troop withdrawal. Mr. O’Hanlon, of the partition study has been supportive of the Iraq invasion as well as the most recent “surge” policy, and may expect to have the Administration’s ear.

U.S. to begin major arms infusion into Middle East

Secretaries of State and Defense Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates this week traveled to the Middle East, bringing along an aid package that includes many billions of dollars worth of U.S. military hardware for its Arab allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and smaller Persian Gulf states, as well as Israel. “The United States is determined to assure our allies that we are going to be reliable in helping them to meet their security needs,” Ms. Rice was reported as saying on July 31 by news agencies.

Israel, which is already the biggest recipient of U.S. military assistance to the tune of $2.4 billion a year, is expected to receive $30 billion over ten years (a 25 percent increase from the current level). Arab states are due to jointly get an additional $33 billion over the same period, with aid to Egypt doubled from $1.3 billion a year. The aid, including naval vessels and missile defense systems, is intended to check the perceived increase in Iran’s regional power following the devastation of Iraq and amid Tehran’s continued progress over its nuclear program, in spite of U.S.-championed international sanctions.

The U.S. Congress would need to approve the aid. That, despite some reservations over aiding countries like Saudi Arabia, seems likely since the plan has Israel’s support. As part of its efforts to contain Iran, U.S. also poured arms into Lebanon in the effort to limit the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah there. The U.S. is also supporting one of the two main factions in Palestine; aiding Azerbaijan through the multi-year $100 million Caspian security program and funding opposition groups within Iran itself.

Iran’s reaction came from its Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar. “[The U.S.] are engaging in psychological warfare in the region in an effort to save the American military industry,” he was quoted as saying by news agencies. “U.S. plans are designed to create a security belt around Israel,” Mr. Najar said. “We have no problem with neighboring or Muslim countries, and should any of these countries acquire weapons. This would only make the Islamic world more powerful,” he suggested.

FWIB: Margarian's death, Biden's resolution on Dink, U.S.-Turkish defense lobby, Iraqi Armenians

From Washington, in Brief
by Emil Sanamyan



Prime Minister Margarian remembered in Washington

A steady stream of officials from the federal and Washington city governments, a number of U.S.-accredited ambassadors and diplomats, and Armenian-Americans came to the Armenian Embassy on March 28 to honor the memory of Prime Minister Andranik Margarian who died of heart failure on March 24.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza flew to Yerevan to attend the funeral on March 28 and deliver a letter of condolences from President George W. Bush. Co-chairs of the Congressional Armenian Caucus Reps. Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.) and Joe Knollenberg (R.-Mich.) issued a statement mourning Margarian’s passing. Heads of several U.S. federal agencies and non-governmental organizations sent letters of condolences.



Senate Committee approves amended resolution honoring Hrant Dink

On March 28, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.), secured committee passage of S. Res. 65 “Condemning the murder of Hrant Dink,” after amending several passages in the resolution’s text. Armenian-American organizations, including the Armenian Assembly, the Armenian National Committee, and USAPAC welcomed Sen. Biden’s effort.

The original text said, “Mr. Dink was prosecuted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for speaking out about the Armenian Genocide.” The State Department and the Turkish government opposed that statement. (See the March 17 edition of the Reporter for the original resolution’s full text.)

“Ankara fears that a Senate approval of the original text may act as a precedent for future congressional action,” the Turkish Daily News reported on March 26. The amended version, which passed the committee and was made available to the Reporter, said, “Mr. Dink was subjected to legal action under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for referring to the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.”

A State Department reaction to the final text was not available at press time.

Another amendment was made to the part of the text that called on Turkey to normalize relations with Armenia. The text that passed the committee called on both “the Government of Turkey and the Government of Armenia to act in the interest of regional security and prosperity and reestablish full diplomatic, political and economic relations.” Unlike Turkey, Armenia has been ready to establish relations without preconditions.

At this time it is unclear whether and when S. Res. 65 might come to the Senate floor.

Major U.S.-Turkish military deal suspended (no relation to Genocide resolution reported)

Turkey suspended plans to purchase 30 F-16 fighter jets and associated equipment from Maryland-based Lockheed Martin. The parties have apparently not agreed on the price, variously estimated between $1.65 and $2.9 billion. There may be political reasons too.

Defense News on March 19 cited sources in the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, Turkey’s procurement agency, as saying that the reason for suspension is Lockheed Martin’s inability to start delivering the planes by 2010.

In the period 2014 to 2034, Turkey also plans to spend $10.7 billion to buy 100 of the U.S.-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF), also co-produced by Lockheed Martin. Defense News’ sources said that Turkey views the modernized F-16 purchase as a stopgap solution to fill Turkey’s need for more modern jets before F-35 production begins. It would be “meaningless” for Turkey to begin taking delivery of the F-16s in 2014, as has been proposed.

But on March 26, www.F-16.net blamed the suspension on a passage inserted as part of congressional approval of the sale. The passage specifies that the sale should “not adversely affect either the military balance in the region or U.S. efforts to encourage a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus question." It provides no clear benchmarks or enforcement mechanisms.

This passage is similar to the restrictions on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan that it not "be used for offensive purposes against Armenia or the Armenian communities in the South Caucasus." But Azerbaijani special forces and air bases modernized by the U.S. are under the control of a government that is overtly planning to use them for exactly these “offensive purposes.”

Meanwhile Turkey's Zaman cited a military source as saying, “Rather than the Armenian genocide bill, the [Kurdish] issue has the potential to turn upside down Turkish-U.S. strategic relations…. If the U.S. does not take action against the [Kurds] in northern Iraq or allow the Turkish military to stage a cross-border operation, [Turkey] may even [drop plans to buy] 100 JSF fighters from the U.S.”

Turkish lobby in the U.S. is upbeat on chances of stopping congressional resolutions



Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Philip Morris were “silver sponsors” of the 26th annual conference of the American-Turkish Council (ATC), held in Washington March 25-27. Other ATC members include BAE Systems, Boeing, Chevron, Citigroup, and Sikorsky.

According to the Turkish media, Ankara’s concerns with congressional affirmation of the Armenian Genocide dominated conversations at the conference.

The ATC conference featured a special message from President George W. Bush. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was the keynote speaker. Mr. Gates was quoted by The Associated Press as saying, "Our two nations should oppose measures and rhetoric that needlessly and destructively antagonize each other. That includes symbolic resolutions by the United States Congress as well as the type of anti-American and extremist rhetoric that sometimes finds a home in Turkish political discourse."

Turkish NTV cited Economy Minister Ali Babacan of Turkey as saying, "things looked extremely dark two months ago, but thanks to the efforts exerted by the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the staff at our Washington Embassy, as well as our lawmakers and non-governmental organizations, I see better chances that the resolution would not be submitted to Congress."

ATC president Jim Holmes, a retired U.S. ambassador, told the Turkish Daily News on March 22 that following intense lobbying by ATC, he is "hopeful … that the leadership of Congress will not bring either in the Senate or in the House of Representatives this legislation to the floor for vote."

Mr. Holmes said in an interview with Roll Call, a congressional news daily, that ATC member companies (including those listed above) are working to stop the resolution. Roll Call’s sources in the companies’ Washington lobbies confirmed that such efforts were underway.

"At the end of the day, the U.S. policy will not change regardless of what Congress does on this," U.S. ambassador to Ankara Ross Wilson said during the ATC reception, according to the Turkish Daily News. "We would like to see the resolution not pass."

Mr. Holmes served as deputy chief of mission in Ankara from 1992 to 1995. The ATC board is chaired by Gen. Brent Scowcroft (ret.), national security advisor to the first President Bush. (For more information, see www.the-atc.org)

Business giants deny opposing resolutions

At the urging of the Turkish government, the American Business Forum in Turkey (ABFT) – an entity separate from the ATC – sent a letter to Congress opposing congressional resolutions on behalf of American companies with business interests in Turkey.

The Armenian National Committee of America inquired with some 70 ABFT members, asking them to clarify their position on the issue. Three companies that responded so far – Microsoft, Cargill, and Johnson and Johnson – denied they were involved in Turkey’s efforts to stop the resolutions.

U.S., United Nations aiding “special populations” displaced from Iraq



According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), several million Iraqis have been displaced since the war in Iraq began in 2003. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey furnished this estimate during the March 26 hearing called by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East.

Discussing U.S. and international assistance efforts, she referred to “special populations,” including “religious minorities such as Christians” – that in Iraq include Arabs, Assyrians, and Armenians. “We intend to ensure that these special populations receive the same consideration and access to the U.S. resettlement program as others and we are encouraging them to contact UNHCR to make their needs known,” Ms. Sauerbrey said.

On March 24, PanArmenian.net carried an interview with Baruyr Hagopian, chair of the Armenian National Committee of Iraq, who estimated that the number of Armenians in Iraq declined from 18,000 to 15,000 as a result of the war. Of those who left, most are now in Syria, Armenia, and Jordan.

Since 2003, 28 Iraqi Armenians have died, and as many have been kidnapped for ransom. Increasingly, Armenians and others from central Iraq are moving to the relative safety of the Iraqi Kurdistan. (See our story on page B1 about the new Armenian church is the area.)

Mr. Hagopian was also quoted as saying that “a significant part of Armenians living in Iraq are not satisfied with their situation and isolation from their historical motherland” and would like to become Armenian dual citizens.

FWIB: Rice-Gates letter, Azeri FM in DC

Published in March 24, Armenian Reporter

From Washington, in Brief
by Emil Sanamyan

* Bush Administration relays Turkey’s threats in a letter and testimonies to Congress



A joint letter sent to the Congressional leadership on March 7 and signed by Secretaries of State and Defense Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates expressed the administration’s opposition to the passage of the proposed resolution affirming the Armenia Genocide. The House Resolution 106 (H. Res. 106) is currently backed by 182 congressmen.

In identical letters addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Republican Minority leader John Boehner (R-OH), and made public last week, the secretaries argued that passage would “harm … U.S. efforts to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and to advance recognition by Turkey of the tragic events that occurred to ethnic Armenians under the Ottoman Empire. It would also significantly endanger U.S. national security interests…”

Ross Vartian of the U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee described this position as “capitulation to Turkish threats. The United States should instead reject such threats, call upon Turkey to face history, and re-affirm Armenian and American history.… We are confident that the Speaker Pelosi will schedule a vote on H. Res. 106 despite Turkish threats and the Bush Administration’s objections.”

“The Bush Administration is today loudly and aggressively seeking, on behalf of the Turkish government, to prevent members of the U.S. Congress from exercising their constitutional right to cast their votes on the Armenian Genocide Resolution,” said Aram Hamparian of the Armenian National Committee of America. “In this unfortunate situation, it is left to us, as Armenian-Americans, to defend America’s core values.”

The Armenian Assembly of America repeated in a March 21 press release that it has “a fundamental policy disagreement with the administration” but would not qualify its position.

During March 21 House Foreign Operations Subcommittee hearing, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the principal sponsor of H. Res. 106, grilled Secretary Rice about the administration’s reluctance to talk straight about the Genocide. Schiff asked if Rice, as an academic, had any doubts that the Ottoman Armenian experience constituted Genocide. Rice, as Secretary of State, dodged the question, saying that the issue is for Armenians and Turks, not the U.S., to deal with.

According to those in the room, the hearing ended with a bit of a ruckus created by activists from the pro-peace group CODEPINK (www.codepink4peace.org ), who shouted against the war in Iraq, and that “Rice lies about the Armenian Holocaust!”

* * *
Little has changed since a similar letter was sent by the Clinton Administration to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) in October 2000, the last time Congress came close to voting on a measure affirming the Genocide. At the time, Secretaries of State and Defense Madeleine Albright and William Cohen also focused on Turkey’s threats to cut off cooperation with the U.S. against Iraq and terrorist threats as reason for Congress “not to go forward.”

In these intervening seven years, the only appreciable difference in the U.S. position is greater rhetorical “sensitivity” to the event of the Genocide itself. The Yerevan-based Mediamax news agency noted that the State Department began to stress this “non-denial” of the Genocide after forcing its Ambassador in Armenia John Evans to retract his by now well-known statements of two years ago.

But affirmation’s opponents in and outside the administration continue to legitimize Turkey’s arguments against the congressional resolution that essentially amount to threats of retaliation against the U.S., Armenia, and Turkish Armenians.

* * *
On March 15, Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dan Fata and Special Envoy to Turkey Gen. (ret.) Joe Ralston aired the administration’s opposition before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe.

(Incidentally Ralston is also a vice chair of a Washington-based consultancy, the Cohen Group (www.cohengroup.net), chaired by none other than ex-Secretary Cohen. Another vice chair is former Undersecretary of State and former Ambassador to Turkey Mark Grossman. The Cohen Group has a longstanding business alliance with the law and lobby group DLA Piper, which is currently in talks with the Turkish government about representing its interests in Washington.)

Fried introduced somewhat of a novelty into his testimony, referring to the Armenian Genocide as “ethnic cleansing” – a new term in the administration’s vocabulary that has just about exhausted alternatives as it seeks to avoid the term “genocide,” which is opposed by the Turkish government. A colleague also noted a stark difference between Secretary Fried’s prepared remarks, as posted on the Subcommittee website, and the remarks as they were actually delivered.

The prepared testimony claimed that according to unnamed Turkish Armenians, the resolution’s passage would “threaten their personal security.” But in his testimony as delivered, Fried claimed much more innocuously that the resolution “would stifle the dialogue [Turkish Armenians] seek and would … threaten the progress they have made in Turkey.”

A spokesperson for the State Department said that the change was merely editorial.

There were other oddities in Fried’s speech. Strained to find examples of Turkish-Armenian “dialogue” that could be “undermined” by the resolution, the State Department pointed to the fact that Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister was invited to Hrant Dink’s funeral and that USAID funded a conference on the potential benefits of border-opening, held in Yerevan last January. (The Reporter carried two stories on the conference, in its Jan. 20 and Feb. 10, 2007 editions.)

The hearing, broadly titled “U.S.-Turkish Relations and the Challenges Ahead,” was co-chaired by two long-time opponents of affirmation Representatives Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Dan Burton (R-IN).

None of the 23 House Foreign Affairs Committee members that have co-sponsored H. Res. 106 were available to speak in favor of the resolution, but several congressional offices said they have or will submit written questions to Secretary Fried.

* * *
Meanwhile, on March 14, the Associated Press referred to an unidentified Democratic congressional aide as saying that Speaker “Pelosi, who controls the House agenda, has no plan to bring the proposal before the House soon.” It added, however, that “final plans have not been approved.”

The AP also referred to a congressional staff aide who related that “it is understood that [Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom] Lantos, whose committee would deal with the resolution, was awaiting word from Pelosi.”

* Azeri official complains of Armenian diaspora on U.S. visit



Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov was in New York and Washington this week to call on the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the U.S. government.

Speaking at Johns Hopkins University on March 21, he touted Azerbaijan’s growing “role in the region and the world” based on moneys generated from peaking hydrocarbon production. The event was moderated by Svante Cornell, the honorary doctor of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences, and the research director of the DC-based university’s Central Asia and Caucasus Institute.

Speaking of Azerbaijan’s decade-long efforts to achieve unilateral Armenian compromises over Karabakh, Mamedyarov said that this has been his overarching priority. He conceded that the parties are currently not close to an agreement.

“There are a few elements which [are] unfortunately playing a negative role – one of which is the Armenian diaspora,” Mamedyarov said without listing others. The remarks echoed those by his President Ilham Aliyev who has, incredibly, identified the diaspora as Azerbaijan’s main opponent in the conflict. The recent high-level Azeri-Turkish forum held in Baku (see the Reporter’s Mar. 17 edition) focused on ways to deal with the “powerful Armenian lobby.”

Asked by the Reporter to provide an estimate on the amount of money Azerbaijan is spending on countering the Armenian diaspora, Mamedyarov would not give a figure, but suggested that Azerbaijan’s efforts to “promote” itself will grow. Mamedyarov went on to encourage Armenians in the U.S. to be “more responsible” and not [sic!] help Armenian causes financially.

Later in the discussion one of Azerbaijan’s paid lobbyists in the audience, Bob Lawrence (www.bl-a.com/clients.htm), complained that Azerbaijan’s spending was small compared to that of Armenian-American advocacy groups. Lawrence, however, is possibly the least paid lobbyist on Azerbaijan’s employ at this time.