The California
Courier Online, October 19, 2023
1- Why is the US
government So Vigilant
About Israel, but not Armenia?
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Blinken: Azerbaijan may attack Armenia; US won’t renew Section 907
Waiver
3- State
Department Denies Politico Report about Blinken Call,
Politico
Stands by Article
4- Armenian
families in Israel evacuate
to Armenia
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1- Why is the US government
So Vigilant
About Israel, but not Armenia?
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
The most common question among Armenians these days is: Why
did the United States
government support Israel so
strongly and promptly, but not Armenia
and Artsakh?
This question became more pertinent after Politico disclosed
last week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned: “Azerbaijan may invade Armenia in the coming weeks.”
During an October 3 phone call with Cong. Nancy Pelosi, Anna
Eshoo and Frank Pallone and others, Blinken reportedly told them: “the State
Department was looking at avenues to hold Azerbaijan
accountable and isn’t planning to renew a long-standing waiver that allows the U.S. to provide military assistance to Baku.” Blinken added:
“the State [Dept.] saw a possibility that Azerbaijan
would invade southern Armenia
in the coming weeks.” Politico wrote that two other unidentified sources
confirmed the phone conversation. Cong. Pallone tweeted on Oct. 11 that “Aliyev
is moving forward with his objective to take Southern
Armenia.” On Oct. 15, in a written statement to Armenpress, State
Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller said that the Politico article “is inaccurate
and in no way reflects what Secretary Blinken said to lawmakers.” However,
Politico said it firmly stands by its report.
Surprisingly, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated on Oct.
11 that the “risk was “extremely low,” and that there was no military buildup
on either side of the border. Thus, the Prime Minister contradicted what Tigran
Balayan, Armenia’s
ambassador to the European Union, said on Oct. 6: Azerbaijan
is actively preparing an invasion of Armenia within weeks.
More importantly, Blinken and other US officials have repeatedly said that they are
committed to “Armenia’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity.” They have stated that “they are deeply
concerned by Azerbaijan’s
military action, declaring that the use of force to resolve disputes is
unacceptable.” However, the U.S.
government not only ignored its own warnings to Azerbaijan,
but also the occupation of Artsakh and parts of Armenia proper. The United States, France
and Russia have apparently
decided that Turkey and Azerbaijan are much important for them than Armenia, regardless of the agreements Russia signed with Armenia and the sympathies of
Western countries for Armenians. They have offered Armenians merely sympathetic
words with zero action. Such shameful behavior has emboldened the dictator in Baku to move forward with
impunity with his expansionist plans. These major powers did not even have the
courage to pass a UN Security Council resolution to condemn Azerbaijan or
impose sanctions.
Understandably, most Armenians are furious at the Israeli
government for permitting its arms manufacturers to provide 60% of Azerbaijan’s
advanced weapons which have killed and wounded thousands of Armenian soldiers
during and after the 2020 War.
The more important issue is: why the United States is so protective of Israel, but not Armenia? The short answer is: due
mostly to the activism of the Jewish-American community. There was a time when
Jewish Americans were discriminated against in many ways. From the 1920’s until
after World War II, American universities limited the number of Jewish students
they admitted. After World War II, the United States even refused to
accept thousands of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.
However, Jewish Americans overcame many obstacles by playing
prominent roles in all aspects of American life, such as business, science,
arts, literature, music, films, theater, comedy, media, civil rights and
politics. As of January 2023, there were 37 Jewish Americans in Congress: 10
Senators and 27 House members. Sen. Chuck Schumer is the Senate Majority
Leader. The US
government contributed $53.6 million to build the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
on donated federal land. Over the years, scores of Jewish Americans have served
on the US Supreme Court. Shelley Greenspan is the White House Jewish Liaison.
In the State Dept., Ellen Germain is the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues and
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt is the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat
Anti-Semitism. Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband Douglas Emhoff is a
Jewish American. There are several Jews serving in high-level governmental
positions, such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State
Wendy Sherman, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, Attorney General Merrick Garland,
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of National
Intelligence Avril Haines, Deputy Director of the CIA David Cohen, Chair of the
Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler, Director of the Office of
Science and Technology Policy Eric Lander, Deputy Health Secretary Rachel
Levine, and National Security Agency cybersecurity director Anne Neuberger.
80 years ago, when 400 Rabbis asked to meet with Pres.
Franklin Roosevelt, they were turned down. But last week, a group of Jewish
Americans met with Pres. Joe Biden in the White House which was lit up in the
colors of the Israeli flag. They have come a long way.
In the category of “Israel
lobby in the United States,”
Wikipedia mentions Christians United for Israel with over seven million
members, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which has three
million members and $100 million annual budget, and J Street with an annual budget of $2
million. On the other hand, Armenian-Americans have two advocacy groups: the Armenian
Assembly of America and Armenian National Committee of America with limited
budgets. Armenians need to hire powerful US
lobbying firms to counter those of Azerbaijan
and Turkey.
Armenians should increase their involvement in political
campaigns and run for elective office. College students should specialize in
political science or international relations. Armenians should increase their
contacts with the US
media; write letters to the editor and commentaries in local and national
newspapers. The community should support financially the Armenian advocacy
groups and contribute to the fundraising campaigns of political candidates. By
playing prominent roles in American life, Armenians can influence domestic and
foreign policy of the United States
and help support Armenia
and the Armenian Cause.
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2- Blinken: Azerbaijan may attack Armenia; US won’t renew Section 907
Waiver
By Eric Bazail-Eimil and
Gabriel Gavin
(Politico)—Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned a small
group of lawmakers last week that his department is tracking the possibility
that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia, according to two people familiar
with the conversation.
The call indicates the depth of concern in the
administration about Azerbaijan’s
operations against Nagorno-Karabagh to its west, and the possibility of the
conflict spreading to Armenia.
Azerbaijiani President Ilham Aliyev has previously called on
Armenia to open a “corridor”
along its southern border, linking mainland Azerbaijan
to an exclave that borders Turkey
and Iran.
Aliyev has threatened to solve the issue “by force.”
In an Oct. 3 phone call, lawmakers pressed Blinken on
possible measures against Aliyev in response to his country’s invasion of the
Nagorno-Karabakh region in September, the two people said, who were granted
anonymity to discuss the sensitive call.
Blinken responded that the State Department was looking at
avenues to hold Azerbaijan
accountable and isn’t planning to renew Section 907—a long-standing waiver that
allows the United States to
provide military assistance to Baku.
He added that the State Department saw a possibility that Azerbaijan would invade southern Armenia in the
coming weeks.
Still, Blinken expressed confidence about ongoing diplomatic
talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan to the Democratic lawmakers, among
them Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Anna Eshoo of California,
and Frank Pallone of New Jersey.
Two additional people confirmed that a briefing happened on
the situation in Azerbaijan,
but did not provide details.
In a statement, the State Department declined to comment on
the call, but emphasized the department’s commitment to “Armenia’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity” and resolving conflict through “direct
talks.”
The decision to hold off on renewing the waiver is also
telling. Every year since 2002, the United States
has issued the waiver, allowing it to sidestep a provision of the Freedom
Support Act that bars the United States
from providing military assistance to Azerbaijan
in light of its ongoing territorial disputes with Armenia. The waiver lapsed in June
and the State Department had previously provided no explanation as to why it hadn’t
yet requested a renewal
Since the briefing, Pallone has said publicly that he’s
worried Azerbaijan
could invade soon. “Aliyev is moving forward with his objective to take Southern Armenia,” Pallone tweeted Wednesday, arguing
that “his regime is emboldened after facing little consequences” for invading
Nagorno-Karabakh.
After Azerbaijan’s
military incursion into that region last month, Blinken had said in a Sept. 20
he was “deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s
military actions” and declared that “the use of force to resolve disputes is
unacceptable.”
But Nagorno-Karabakh is not the only territorial dispute
between the two Caucasus countries.
Baku has proposed a route to
the Nakhichevan exclave that would cut through Armenia’s
southern Syunik region, known in Azerbaijani as Zangezur, and enable road
traffic to bypass Iran.
Aliyev has said “we will be implementing the Zangezur
Corridor, whether Armenia
wants it or not.”
“In Armenia,
this is perceived as territorial claims and a demand for an extraterritorial corridor,”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday, October 11 in response
to growing calls from Ankara and Baku to come to an
agreement.
In an interview on Wednesday, October 11, Hikmet Hajiyev,
Aliyev’s senior foreign policy adviser, denied Azerbaijan has any claims on
Armenian territory. He said that the risk of conflict was low because “the last
two weeks had been the calmest weeks in the history of Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations — there are no longer soldiers in the trenches staring at one
another” in the wake of Azerbaijan’s actions in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Azerbaijan
restored what legally, historically and morally was ours” with its
self-described “anti-terror” campaign in the region, and has no intention of
pushing into de jure Armenian areas, he added.
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3- State Department Denies
Politico Report about Blinken Call,
Politico
Stands by Article
(Combined Sources)—Politico reported Friday that the State
Department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan
could soon invade southern Armenia
in the coming weeks, Secretary of Antony Blinken warned a group of lawmakers
during a telephone call on October 3.
Politico cited two people familiar with the conversation.
In a written statement to Armenpress, State Department
spokesperson Matthew Miller claimed that the reporting in the article was
“inaccurate and in no way reflects what Secretary Blinken said to lawmakers.”
“The United States
strongly supports Armenia’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We have stressed that any infringement of that sovereignty and
territorial integrity would bring serious consequences,” Miller said.
“Four people told me that Secretary Blinken had an October 3
call with a group of lawmakers, and two of those four said that Blinken said
State was tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan would invade in the coming
weeks,” Bazail-Eimil, one of the Politico reporters said in post on X reacting
to Miller’s statement to Armenpress. “Whether that assessment has changed is
another story.”
“State [Dept.] declined to comment on the call. They
provided no readout of the details of the conversation,” Bazail-Eimil added on
X. “I leave open the possibility that obviously, details and nuance might be
missing. That’s why we tried to be careful, with very thought-out phrasing
around the details we knew.”
“But I firmly stand by what my sources said about the
substance of Blinken’s comments in that call,” Bazail-Eimil emphasized.
Gavin, the other Politico reporter said on a post on X that
he was “unable to get a copy of the statement reportedly issued by State and
requests for clarification and confirmation have gone unanswered.”
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4- Armenian
families in Israel evacuate
to Armenia
(News.am)—A special flight was organized on October 16 from
Tel Aviv to Yerevan to evacuate Armenia's citizens and their families who wanted
to leave Israel
as a safety precaution, the Armenian foreign ministry said in a statement
Monday, October 16. Last week, three citizens of Armenia studying at the Eastern
Mediterranean International School (EMIS) in the Tel Aviv region were provided
similar support from the embassy. The Armenian foreign ministry said that they
are monitoring the situation along with the Armenian Embassy in Israel and will
take additional measures when necessary.
It added that according to the latest information there are
no Armenian citizens or ethnic Armenians among those killed or injured in the
hostilities.
On October 11, Artyom Chernamoryan, chairman of Nairi Union
of Petah Tikva city and editor-in-chief of Israel Armenians newspaper, told
NEWS.am that “the entire south and center of Israel was under massive rocket
fire. The most terrible thing is that now a military front may be opened in the
north, which will cause serious problems for the entire region if the north
also enters the war. Jerusalem
was attacked yesterday, today I have no information. It is relatively calmer
there.”
“We have many Armenians whose children are conscripted,
which is very worrying for us. We created a headquarters, and today we received
a letter from the municipality that it is possible for our forces and our
community to participate in volunteer work,” he said.
He said that 10,000 Armenians live in Israel, 500
Armenians live in heavily bombarded cities, and 3,000 Armenians live in the
center of the country, which is under rocket attacks.
Armenia's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement on October 12, in which it said
the Armenian Church in Jerusalem
had not sustained any damage.
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