Category: 2019

BY LUCINE POTURYAN
ANCA Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Fellow

Only three days into my time in Washington, D.C. with the Armenian National Committee of America, and I experienced a whirlwind of activity that was fit to last me the whole summer. That eventful start set the tone for a productive and engaging summer in the hotbed of American politics, hosted by a dedicated organization fired up to mobilize its Armenian-American youth.

Let me begin by saying that I’m honored to be the inaugural Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Fellow. Her dedication to the Armenian Cause inspired me in my work here with the ANCA in ways I wouldn’t realize until I completed the program. But, I’ll get back to this.

The first day of this internship was marked by a workday-long crash course on the Armenian issues being voted on in Congress during this week. Be alert: if you’re sitting in your chair trying to rub the jet-lagged sleep out of your eyes, the ANCA staff are the abrupt awakening you didn’t know you needed: we’re going to Capitol Hill tomorrow.

That’s right, on just the second day of the internship, my ANCA Leo Sarkisian Summer Internship teammates and I found ourselves navigating the halls of the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon office buildings, pitching for the House of Representatives’ support for our foreign aid amendments granting $40 million to Armenia to support democratic developments, and $1.5 million in demining and rehabilitation aid to Artsakh. After spending the day visiting 439 congressional offices, we retired to the ANCA headquarters to watch the results of our efforts in real-time, over pizza. The air in the room was steeped in anticipation, hope, and exhaustion. We had barely gotten to know each other, let alone get settled into the city when we were exclaiming and hugging in sheer joy: we’d come together to a complicated city new to us and made a tangible change on our second day.

The thrill of the internship didn’t stop there. I was excited to learn that the delegation of interns from California would be sitting in on a meeting with the ANCA staff and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). I remember asking myself, a newcomer to this tempestuous city, if any of these events were happening in my conscious state. We had the opportunity to sit down with the Senator and speak to her about garnering senatorial support for Armenia and Artsakh related priorities. At the end of the meeting, Senator Feinstein requested for the women in the group to sit in the front for our photograph, female powerhouses flanking her. As I left her office, I didn’t think the day could get better.

Then the midday humidity welcomed itself into the city. However, Washington’s humid streets didn’t stop the women in our office from attending Politico’s Third Annual Salute to the Female Chiefs of Staff in the Capitol building. Listening to the advice of these women was inspiring for me both personally and professionally, and while I was still taking in the experience of that event, our tenacious Governmental Affairs Director, Tereza Yerimyan, led us on our way to another event. As we were walking out of the Capitol, we did a double take upon seeing Speaker Nancy Pelosi walking through the Capitol with her entourage and headed right on over for a quick chat about the Armenian Genocide resolution.

And that was just the first week. I will let the rest of the ANCA Leo Sarkisian team discuss the remaining seven weeks, but, in short, it included work on passing four pro-Armenian amendments, constant meetings with members of Congress, grassroots mobilization calls to Armenian Americans across the U.S., meetings with current and former Ambassadors, career exploration lectures, extracurricular expeditions around the capital city’s museums, ice cream socials, and a truckload of excitement and passion on the road to #HaiTahd.

All of which brings me back to Maral Melkonian Avetisyan. When I started this program, I was handed a poem—“When I Wake Up”—that Maral had written back when she was 13-years-old. She wrote about starting each day committed to fighting for a brighter future for Armenia and its children. And, with her inspiration and the ANCA’s guidance, that’s just what we did during this internship—and what I look forward to doing moving forward.

WASHINGTON—The Trump Administration—caving in to pressure from Azerbaijan’s authoritarian Aliyev regime—is targeting the humanitarian aid program in Artsakh, attempting to shut down the HALO Trust’s de-mining program that has saved countless lives across the Republic, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

U.S. Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA) and TJ Cox (D-CA) are leading a Congressional campaign—backed by the ANCA—encouraging USAID Administrator Mark Green to reverse course and preserve the Nagorno-Karabakh de-mining program. Administrator Green testified before the Foreign Affairs Committee on April 9 of this year that USAID was committed to completing the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnances within the traditional boundaries of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“President Trump is wrong to bow to Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev’s reckless demand that America end U.S. humanitarian aid to Artsakh,” stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “A modest expenditure that represents a major investment in peace, this aid program has, since Fiscal Year 1998, delivered desperately needed maternal health care, provided families with clean drinking water, and cleared farms and villages of deadly mines. We thank each and every U.S. legislator who is seeking to advance U.S. interests and American values by continuing U.S. humanitarian aid to Artsakh in the face of foreign attempts to meddle in American decision-making.”

The ANCA has mounted a nationwide grassroots Congressional calling campaign in support of continued Artsakh aid. To participate, visit the website.

BY LEONARD MANOUKIAN

Years ago, Aliyev and his government decided to openly support and actively engage in the U.S. campaign to isolate Iran, weaken its economy, and undermine its leadership—an already aggressive American undertaking under previous presidents that has, over the past two years, been taken to new heights by the Trump Administration and its National Security Adviser, John Bolton.

Now, of course, Azerbaijan’s choice comes with its costs and its benefits.

One benefit is increased security funding for Iran-facing initiatives, such as the longstanding Caspian Guard program to check Iranian influence along energy-producing regions of the Caspian coast. As expected, this category of anti-Iran aid to Azerbaijan has increased as the Trump White House has ramped up its pressure against Tehran.

On the other side of the equation are the costs. Among these, as you might expect, is increased hostility between Azerbaijan and Iran, two countries that will remain neighbors long after the Trump Administration has termed out and this particularly contentious era in U.S.-Iranian relations has come to an end. Armenia, for its part, hasn’t adopted America’s anti-Iranian approach, even though doing so may come with some rewards from Washington.

Amateurs and experts can argue about whether Azerbaijan or Armenia made the better choice in this regard, but what’s clear is that nations live with the choices they’ve made. To pretend otherwise is either painfully ignorant or willfully deceptive. Those trying to make hay of this issue for their own political purposes—foreign or domestic—probably exhibit some of both.

The good news is that serious Armenians know that the history of nations is not measured in tweets or news cycles, but in decades and centuries.

We understand that the short-term temptation of a few U.S. aid dollars—and the unfortunate second-guessing and speech-making that inevitably comes whenever Armenians take a pass on such enticements—is not worth sacrificing our long-term interests.

We witnessed the Georgian and Ukrainian experiences—cheered on by the U.S. government and NGO stakeholders—resulting in short-term aid packages, endless Washington, D.C., photo ops and, ultimately, the long-term loss of land, sovereignty and security.

We are smart enough to know the difference between those who posture as sophomoric score-keepers, as if U.S.-Armenia relations were some sort of game, and the true stewards of this enduring partnership and the abiding friendship of the Armenian and American peoples.

We have the patient, principled commitment to our homeland and heritage needed to not take the bait every time some attention seeker tries to play “gotcha” with our nation’s future.

In our homeland and across our Diaspora, there will always be those who try to score cheap points and those who make real progress.

Let us be among the latter.

Leonard Manoukian is an attorney, and former co-chair of ANCA-Glendale.