WASHINGTON POST: ARMENIANS TO LOSE MUCH FROM BRYZA’S RETURN TO WASHINGTON
Trend
Dec 19 2011
Azerbaijan
The biggest losers in Matthew Bryza’s return to Washington and his
recall as the U.S. ambassador won’t be Americans or Azerbaijanis,
but Armenians – poor, isolated and once again victims of a power
play that has nothing to do with their well-being, an article by Fred
Hiatt on Washington Post says.
“In the great modern novel of Washington dysfunction, this is a
small subplot. But the failing nomination of Matthew Bryza, out
of public view and without so much as a committee vote, offers a
vivid example of how the larger U.S. national interest can fall
victim to special-interest jockeying and political accommodation,”
the article says.
“Barring a last-minute surprise in the U.S. Senate, the well-qualified
diplomat President Obama sent to serve as ambassador to Azerbaijan
will have to come home in less than a month,” Washington Post writes.
“This particular story begins not in Azerbaijan, but with its neighbor
Armenia – small, poor country. Armenia has committed diaspora in
the United States, France and elsewhere. But the past 20 years have
brought disappointment: a government that is democratic more in form
than substance and a corrupt, under performing economy. Armenia is
the 141st poorest country in the world, with a per capita income of
$5,700” Hiatt writes.
He believes that one reason for the sub-par performance has been
Armenia’s inability to settle grievances with neighboring Azerbaijan
and Turkey. The cold peace has exacerbated the ill effects of being
landlocked.
“And one reason peacemaking has failed is the dogmatism of some
diaspora groups. A fervent, at times even counterproductively so,
diaspora is not unique, but it has been particularly debilitating
for minuscule, resource-poor Armenia,” Hiatt writes.
This is the context for the campaign against Bryza, deemed
insufficiently hostile to Armenia’s enemies by the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) and two Democratic senators with Armenian
American constituencies, Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Robert Menendez
(N.J.), the article says.
When Obama first nominated Bryza in 2010, Boxer and Menendez put a
“hold” on his nomination, preventing a Senate vote.
Senators’ doubts about Bryza are not widely shared. On the contrary,
36 foreign policy luminaries, including former undersecretaries of
state Thomas Pickering and Nicholas Burns, released a letter last
week calling Bryza an “exemplary” ambassador who has served “with
distinction, the article says.
According to the article, the heads of the National Endowment for
Democracy, Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute and the
International Republican Institute are among his supporters. But all
four signed the letter.
Bryza has been promoting dialogue between the Azerbaijani regime and
civil society. He’s been promoting reconciliation with Armenia, too,
the article says.
“If Azerbaijan sees that the Armenia lobby, and two out of 100
senators, have veto power, the regime is unlikely to trust in the
neutrality of the next envoy,” Hiatt writes.
“The biggest losers in all this won’t be Americans or Azerbaijanis
(who, by the way, enjoy about twice the per capita income of
Armenians), but Armenians – poor, isolated and once again victims
of a power play that has nothing to do with their well-being,” the
article says.