Armenians Flex Muscles in Washington
With diaspora on its side, country punches above its weight.
Armenians Flex Muscles in Washington
With diaspora on its side, country punches above its weight.
Despite having a population of just three million people, an unfortunate geographic position and almost no natural resources, Armenia’s growing influence in Washington is the envy of larger countries.
Last month, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives for the third time in ten years passed a resolution condemning the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in World War One as genocide, in the face of heavy pressure against such steps from NATO member Turkey.
Five out of an estimated eight million Armenians worldwide live outside Armenia with the largest communities in Russia and the US numbering two and one million people respectively.
Those million American Armenians are increasingly engaged in US politics and getting better at keeping their country’s issues high on the agenda.
“Frankly, Armenian-American influence on US foreign policy is minimal, but growing in recent years due to the community's engagement in elections and a more effective lobbying in Washington,” said Harut Sassounian, a Los Angeles publisher and columnist, and vice-president of the Lincy Foundation established by the world’s richest Armenian, Kirk Kerkorian.
The history of the Armenian diaspora, like those of the Jews and Greeks, goes back to ancient times.
However, most Armenians scattered around the world are descended from communities destroyed in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, which expelled Armenians from a homeland that spanned much of today’s eastern Turkey.
This experience, which successive Turkish governments have refused to accept as genocide, has contributed to Armenians’ political activism.
Additionally, Armenians have been mobilised by the challenges of dealing with the massive Spitak earthquake of 1988, the independence of Armenia in 1991 and the subsequent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the future of Nagorny Karabakh.
In the last two decades, the US has emerged as a key player in the South Caucasus region, where Armenia is the smallest of three ex-Soviet republics. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Washington and private entities poured in aid, investment and diplomatic effort.
Although relatively small and therefore comparatively insignificant, the South Caucasus’s importance to the US derives mainly from the fact that it borders Russia, Iran and Turkey, three key players in American foreign policy.
As Armenia continues to face serious security and economic challenges, it helps to have a sympathetic constituency inside the US making sure Armenia’s concerns are not overlooked.
"The public policy success we've experienced has been due to the fact that each of our main advocacy priorities - the Armenian genocide recognition, freedom for Nagorny Karabagh, and strengthening the US-Armenia relationship - are all about bringing US policy into alignment with American values,” argued Aram Hamparian, who directs the Armenian National Committee of America, ANCA, the community’s most prominent voice in Washington.
Diaspora groups have also been credited with winning more than two billion US dollars in American aid to Armenia since independence, while also pushing for acceptance of Nagorny Karabakh’s independence from Azerbaijan, including provision of direct US aid to the entity.
In the absence of the resources and geographic advantages enjoyed by its neighbours, investments from individual businessmen and foundations in the diaspora have helped landlocked Armenia maintain a rate of economic growth comparable to those of both Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Armenians have also made substantial gains in the campaign to designate the Armenian experience in Ottoman Turkey as genocide, successfully winning parliamentary resolutions in two dozen countries and in the US securing an annual presidential-level commemoration of those events.
While most of the focus has been on American officials’ refusal to use the term genocide in deference to Turkey, the campaign for recognition has kept what might have otherwise become a forgotten tragedy alive and politically relevant.
Last year, President Barack Obama raised Armenian concerns in a speech at the Turkish parliament during his visit to Ankara.
Although the nationalist movement remains strong in Turkey, public opinion has grown more aware and steadily more accepting of the need to confront past misdeeds.
The recognition campaign has also helped rekindle Turkey’s interest in moderating its policy towards Armenia.
In the early 1990s, Turkey refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia unless Yerevan successfully pressured diaspora groups to drop the recognition campaign. Turkey also closed its land border with Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan, which is inhabited by a closely-related people.
Armenia and Turkey signed an agreement on normalising relations last October, however. The deal has not yet been ratified but – along with mutual presidential visits – it marked a historic development in their relations.
As Armenia’s president and Turkey’s prime minister are due to visit Washington early next week, there is anticipation of further US efforts to keep Armenia-Turkey relations on track.
At the same time, Armenian Americans will continue pushing Obama to uphold his pre-election pledge to recognise the Armenian genocide.
“Perhaps the greatest challenge we face is in overcoming entrenched and, we believe outdated thinking within the foreign policy community that has steered US foreign policy - on fundamental issues such as genocide, democracy, and peace - so far away from core American values,” ANCA’s Hamparian said.
Emil Sanamyan is editor of the US-based Armenian Reporter http://www.reporter.am/
