WASHINGTON, DC – In a move expected to impact electoral outcomes in key presidential election swing states this November, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the nation’s grassroots Armenian American organization, today announced its endorsement of the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

“For Armenian Americans, the clear choice is John Kerry,” said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.  “Senator Kerry has been a friend of the Armenian American community for over twenty years, with a proven track record of fighting hard for issues of concern to Armenian Americans across the nation.  He faces an incumbent, President Bush, whose record on Armenian issues has grown progressively more disappointing throughout his tenure in the White House, beginning with his broken campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, including his Administration’s attempt to end military aid parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and up until this week, with his Administration’s strident attacks on legislation recognizing the Armenian Genocide.”

John Kerry welcomed the ANCA endorsement, stating that, “John Edwards and I would like to thank the ANCA for its endorsement.  We are looking forward to working with all Armenian Americans to create a stronger America, more respected in the world.”

“We call upon Armenian Americans to compare the respective records of Senator Kerry and President Bush, to weigh the importance of their ballot for the future of U.S.-Armenian relations, and to cast their vote for the Kerry-Edwards ticket on November 2nd,” added Hachikian.

The ANCA endorsement follows closely in the wake of the Bush Administration’s forceful attack on the Schiff Amendment, a provision adopted last week by the U.S. House that prevents Turkey from using U.S. foreign aid to lobby against the Genocide Resolution.  Armenian Americans, particularly those in key swing states such as Pennslyvania, Ohio, and Florida, are positioned to play a decisive role in what looks, by all accounts, to be a hotly contested election.

ANCA’s Outreach to the White House and Republican Leaders 

The ANCA has, on several occasions over the past four years, specifically asked for a meeting between President Bush and the Armenian American community leadership.  These formal requests, which never received a response, were supported by a series of ANCA and community-wide letters outlining the views and disappointments of Armenian Americans on specific issues, ranging from the Armenian Genocide to foreign aid policy.

 In April of this year, the ANCA sent detailed letters to the Chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, Marc Racicot, and the Congressional Republican leadership voicing disappointment over the Bush Administration’s record on Armenian issues, and expressing frustration with the lack of responsiveness by the White House to the concerns of the Armenian American community.  The ANCA’s concerns were grouped, in this letter, into three broad categories: 1) unfulfilled commitments, 2) opposition to community concerns, and 3) failure to prioritize Armenian issues.

The Senate and House letters, addressed to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), highlighted the powerful leadership demonstrated by a great many Republicans on Armenian issues, notably by Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Genocide Resolution author George Radanovich (R-CA), and Senators such as Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Ensign (R-NV), George Allen (R-VA), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), and many others.  These letters included more than a dozen specific recommendations by the ANCA about how the Congressional leadership could encourage the White House to improve its standing among Armenian American voters.

Neither the President nor his campaign responded to the ANCA’s appeal for their intervention to help establish a constructive dialogue between the Administration and the Armenian American community.

For additional information on the ANCA’s outreach to Republican leaders concerning the Bush Administration’s record on Armenian issues, visit:https://anca.org/press-release/anca-shares-armenian-american-disappointment-over-the-bush-administration-with-congressional-leaders/

ANCA Supports Endorsement by Calling for Greater Grassroots Activism

Along with its Presidential endorsement, the ANCA reminded Armenian Americans that their ability to impact policy-level decision-making depends, first and foremost, on the continued expansion of advocacy efforts at all levels of government.  The ANCA’s detailed Congressional endorsements, which will be announced later this year, will represent an important element of this process by providing Armenian American voters with the information they need to solidify the strong support our community enjoys in Congress.

“The challenge before the Armenian American community, as in years past, remains growing our activism and strengthening our voice in the public policy debates and within the foreign policy community,” said Hachikian.  “We call upon Armenian Americans to meet this challenge by increasing our engagement with the Executive Branch and providing the strongest possible support for our friends in the U.S. House and Senate on November 2nd and throughout the 109th Congress.”

The Kerry Record

During his long tenure in the US House and Senate, Senator Kerry has consistently been a leading advocate of issues of concern to Armenian Americans. As a U.S. Senator, Kerry has forcefully fought for U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and is currently a cosponsor of the Genocide Resolution, S.Res.164. In 1990, Senator Kerry voted on the Senate floor for Senator Bob Dole’s (R-KS) Genocide Resolution.

The Massachusetts Senator has been a vocal and effective champion of stronger U.S.-Armenia relations and has consistently backed legislative initiative to increase aid and expand trade with Armenia. He is currently a cosponsor of legislation, S.1557, which would grant Armenia permanent normal trade relations status.

Senator Kerry has spearheaded a number of initiatives to lift the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades. In 1991, he was the lead sponsor of legislation, which was later enacted as Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, restricting U.S. aid to the government of Azerbaijan until its blockades of Armenia and Mountainous Karabagh are lifted. He also worked for the adoption of the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, which called for US aid to Turkey to be cut off unless Turkey lifted its blockade of Armenia. As recently as this January, Senator Kerry formally called on President Bush to press the visiting Prime Minister of Turkey to lift his nation’s illegal blockade of Armenia.

The Bush Record

The full text of the Armenian American Presidential Report Card on the Administration of George W. Bush is provided below:

1) Broken campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide
Almost immediately after taking office, President Bush abandoned his campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. This promise, which he made in February of 2000 as Texas Governor, was widely distributed among Armenian Americans prior to the hotly contested Michigan primary. It read, in part, as follows:

“The twentieth century was marred by wars of unimaginable brutality, mass murder and genocide. History records that the Armenians were the first people of the last century to have endured these cruelties. The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and commands all decent people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people.”

Rather than honor this promise, the President has, in his annual April 24th statements, used evasive and euphemistic terminology to avoid describing Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate destruction of the Armenian people by its proper name – the Armenian Genocide.

2) Opposition to the Congressional Genocide Resolution
The Bush Administration is actively blocking the adoption of the Genocide Resolution in both the House and Senate. This legislation (S.Res.164 and H.Res.193) specifically cites the Armenian Genocide and formally commemorates the 15th anniversary of United States implementation of the U.N. Genocide Convention. The Genocide Resolution is supported by a broad based coalition of over one hundred organizations, including American Values, the NAACP, National Council of Churches, Sons of Italy, International Campaign for Tibet, National Council of La Raza, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis.

As recently as July 16th of this year, the Bush Administration reiterated its opposition to legislation recognizing the Armenian Genocide.  In response the adoption by the U.S. House of the Schiff Amendment, which blocks Turkey from using U.S. aid to lobby against the Genocide Resolution, the Administration pressed Congressional leaders to prevent the enactment of any provision recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

3) Failure to condemn Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide
The Bush Administration has failed to condemn Turkey’s recent escalation of its campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide. Notably, the Administration has remained silent in the face of the decree issued in April of 2003 by Turkey’s Education Minister, Huseyin Celik, requiring that all students in Turkey’s schools be instructed in the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

The State Department’s 2003 human rights report on Turkey uses the historically inaccurate and highly offensive phrase “alleged genocide” to mischaracterize the Armenian Genocide. In addition, despite repeated protests, the Bush Administration’s State Department continues to host a website on Armenian history that fails to make even a single mention of the Genocide.  (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5275.htm)

4) The Waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act
The Bush Administration, in 2001, aggressively pressured Congress into granting the President the authority to waive Section 907, a provision of law that bars aid to the government of Azerbaijan until it lifts its blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. President Bush has subsequently used this authority to provide direct aid, including military assistance, to the government of Azerbaijan, despite their continued violation of the provisions of this law.

5) Reduction in aid to Armenia
In the face of the devastating, multi-billion dollar impact of the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades on the Armenian economy, President Bush has, in each of the past three years, proposed to Congress that humanitarian and developmental aid to Armenia be reduced.

6) Abandonment of the Military Aid Parity Agreement
The Bush Administration abandoned its November 2001 agreement with Congress and the Armenian American community to maintain even levels of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Instead, the Administration, in its fiscal year 2005 foreign aid bill, proposes sending four times more Foreign Military Financing to Azerbaijan ($8 million) than to Armenia ($2 million). This action tilts the military balance in favor of Azerbaijan, rewards Azerbaijan’s increasingly violent threats of renewed aggression, and undermines the role of the U.S. as an impartial mediator of the Nagorno Karabagh talks.

7) Mistaken Listing of Armenia as a Terrorist Country
The Bush Administration, through Attorney General John Ashcroft, sought, unsuccessfully, in December of 2002 to place Armenia on an Immigration and Naturalization Service watch list for terrorist countries. This obvious error was reversed only after a nation-wide protest campaign. Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice has apologized for the offense caused by this mistake.

8) Neglect of U.S.-Armenia relations
While the Bush Administration has maintained a formal dialogue with Armenia on economic issues through the bi-annual meetings of the U.S.-Armenia Task Force, it has, as a matter of substance, failed to take any meaningful action to materially promote U.S.-Armenia economic ties.  Specifically, the Administration has not provided leadership on legislation, spearheaded by Congressional Republicans and currently before Congress, to grant Armenia permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status.  Nor has the Administration initiated any steps toward the negotiation of a Tax Treaty, Social Security Agreement, Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, or other bilateral agreements to foster increased U.S.-Armenia commercial relations.

The President neither visited Armenia nor has he invited the President of Armenia to visit the United States.

9) Failure to maintain a balanced policy on Nagorno Karabagh
The Bush Administration, to its credit, took an early initiative to help resolve the Nagorno Karabagh issue in the form of the Key West summit meeting in 2001 between Secretary of State Powell and the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. After Azerbaijan’s failure to honor its Key West commitments, however, the Administration failed to hold Azerbaijan accountable for unilaterally stalling the Nagorno Karabagh peace process.

10) Increased grants, loans and military transfers to Turkey
The Bush Administration has effectively abandoned America’s responsibility to link aid, loans, and arms transfers to Turkey’s adherence to basic standards for human rights and international conduct. The most notable example was the $8 billion loan package provided to Turkey in 2003 despite Turkey’s refusal to allow U.S. forces to open a northern front during the war in Iraq.

11) Taxpayer financing of the Baku-Ceyhan bypass of Armenia
The Bush Administration is supporting American taxpayer subsidies for the politically motivated Baku-Ceyhan pipeline route that, at the insistence of Turkey and Azerbaijan, bypasses Armenia.

12) Refusal to pressure Turkey and Azerbaijan to end their blockades
The Bush Administration has not forcefully condemned the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades as clear violations of international law, nor, outside of occasional public statements, has it taken any meaningful steps to pressure the Turkish or Azerbaijani governments to end their illegal border closures.

13) Lobbying for Turkish membership in the European Union
The Bush Administration has aggressively pressured European governments to accept Turkey into the European Union, despite Turkey’s consistent failure to meet European conditions for membership, on issues ranging from the blockade of Armenia and the Armenian Genocide to the occupation of Cyprus and human rights.

14) Down-grading relations with the Armenian American community
Breaking with the tradition of the last several Administrations, the Bush White House failed to reach out in any meaningful way to our nation’s one and a half million citizens of Armenian heritage. While the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council maintained their long-standing, policy-level dialogue with the Armenian American community leadership, the White House itself essentially neglected Armenian Americans as a political constituency. Perhaps the most telling example of this is that, during the course of the past three years, despite repeated requests, the President did not hold any community-wide meetings with the leadership of the Armenian American community, nor did his Secretary of State or National Security Advisor.

15) Armenian American appointments
To the Administration’s credit, the President appointed Joe Bogosian to an important Deputy Assistant Secretary position at the Commerce Department, John Jamian to a key maritime position in the Department of Transportation, and Samuel Der-Yeghiayan as a Federal Judge in the Northern District of Illinois.