PanArmenian News Analysis
Feb 9 2005
US ADMINISTRATION INSISTS ON RENDERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE TO
NAGORNO-KARABAKH
White House proposes to render more support to Armenia than to
Azerbaijan next year
US administration has submitted to Congress the bill of external
financial provisions for 2006. Armenian organizations of America are
satisfied with the contents of the document since firstly it supposes
rendering direct assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh and secondly in
contrast to the last year’s bill it provides equal assistance for
military aims. As it is known the White House formerly considered
that official Baku deserved more support from Washington since Baku
was more actively involved in the international anti-terrorist
coalition.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ This time the United States have proposed to
allocate 5 million dollars to Armenia and Azerbaijan for
implementation of the defense program. It should be mentioned that
last year the White House proposed to provide Yerevan with a sum four
times less than the sum planned for Baku. (Armenia – 2 million
dollars, Azerbaijan – 8 million dollars). However due to the efforts
of Armenian lobbyists and their partners in the House of
Representatives and the Senate the sum was equalized. Both parties
received 8 million and 750 thousand dollars. Things were like this
also two years ago when again thanks to the efforts of congressmen
equality was achieved in the capacities of military support provided
to Armenia and Azerbaijan. The fact that the administration has
finally given up the attempts to break the balance in this issue is
the success of Armenian lobbyists.
However it would not be quite correct to impute the achievement only
to American Armenians who actively lobby the interests of Yerevan.
The issue would hardly be settled so easily without the efforts of
Yerevan. It is reasonable to think that this time the parity would
not be achieved if Armenia did not make the decision to send
peace-makers to Iraq. Last year lobbyists managed to win the
sympathies of Congress thanks to the declared readiness of Yerevan to
activate its role in the international anti-terror coalition. Yerevan
kept the promise. However some correspondents hold that the difficult
step made by Armenia was not estimated at its true worth by
Washington. The sum mentioned in the bill was much less than
supposed. At the end of the last year informal sources mentioned much
more impressive figures.
As for the “regular support” the administration intends to assign 55
million dollars. It is worth mentioning that last year the White
House offered 62 million to Yerevan but the Congress kept the
previous sum – 75 million. It is much easier to bring 62 to 75 than
55 to 75. So it is quite possible that this year we shall have to
submit that the regular support provided by the United States will be
less than before. Nevertheless it should be mentioned that the
figures mentioned in the bill are just proposed by the
administration. Practice shows that lawmakers bravely make
corrections in the texts of the documents submitted by the White
House. The same can be said about documents referring to Armenia.
There are no doubts that this year also the partners of Armenian
lobbyists in the Congress will achieve success in increasing the sum
planned for Armenia and it will be much higher than the sum assigned
to Azerbaijan.
Despite the amendment 907 introduced in 1992 that banned government
aid to Azerbaijan this year Baku will however receive aid from
Washington. The temporary suspension of the amendment initiated by
the president allowed Azerbaijan to receive altogether 90 million
dollars. The US ambassador in Azerbaijan Rino Harnish announced on
Monday that he “dreams of the day when the amendment is fully
canceled”. He assured that both the administration and the Congress
strive for the cancellation of the amendment. It is of course an
exaggeration. The Congress is not going to yield to the
administration in that issue and besides, the existence of the
amendment is quite advantageous for the president himself since it
creates additional mechanisms of impact on Azerbaijan. So there are
no serious grounds to talk about the possibility of ceasing the
sanctions applied against Azerbaijan punished by the United States
for blockading Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Artem Erkanyan
–Boundary_(ID_0gTn8OmI0cN+DnQE1OtXEQ)–