CANDIDATE:

As 2024 presidential candidate, Donald Trump called out the Biden-Harris Administration for inaction in the face of the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh’s Armenian Christians.

“Kamala Harris did NOTHING as 120,000 Armenian Christians were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced in Artsakh. Christians around the World will not be safe if Kamala Harris is President of the United States. When I am President, I will protect persecuted Christians, I will work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will restore PEACE between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” stated Trump, in a post on Truth Social.

PRESIDENT:

As President, Donald Trump led an Administration that took actions at odds with a broad array of core Armenian American policy priorities:

— With regard to the “Escalation of Violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan”, the Trump/Pence State Department made the following statement:

— The Trump/Pence Administration failed to properly commemorate the Armenian Genocide in all four of its annual April 24th messages, choosing instead to post euphemistic commemorations heavily drawing upon text from past presidential April 24th statements.

— The Trump/Pence Administration did not take a public stand on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.296, which was adopted by the U.S. House, but did enlist Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC), David Perdue (R-GA), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to block the same bipartisan resolution, S.Res.150, in the U.S. Senate.

— The Trump/Pence Administration aggressively attacked the U.S. aid program to Artsakh – despite public commitments of support by its own USAID Administrator and broad, bipartisan Congressional support – cutting off all U.S. funding for the HALO Trust’s de-mining and mine-safety education programs.

— The Trump/Pence Administration, breaking with years of precedent, failed to maintain the tradition of parity in U.S. military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan, boosting the Pentagon’s military aid package for Azerbaijan to over $100 million.

— The Trump/Pence Administration has publicly embraced Turkish President Recep Erdogan, with President Trump holding up the Turkish leader as a personal “friend” and American ally, even as the Turkish government has turned its back on the United States and NATO.

— The Trump Administration – despite broad, bipartisan condemnation of the May, 2017 attack by Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s bodyguards against peaceful U.S. protesters in Washington, DC – failed to criticize this assault and refused to pursue charges against Turkish nationals charged for this assault.

— The Trump/Pence Administration has opposed Armenia’s humanitarian deployment of medical personnel and de-miners to Aleppo, Syria, where they are saving the lives of Armenians and other Syrian civilians.

— The Trump/Pence Administration waived the Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act on four occasions, limiting enforcement of this 1992 law restricting U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan due to its blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh).

— The Trump/Pence Press Secretary cited an Armenian Genocide monument during official remarks regarding an unrelated matter, informing Asbarez News soon afterward that the White House policy on this subject “remained unchanged.”

— The Trump/Pence Administration’s first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, failed to register as a foreign agent for Turkey (a contract that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars) and published a pro-Erdogan op/ed on Election Day in 2016.

— The Trump/Pence Administration’s budget requests have called for reductions in aid to Armenia.

— The Trump/Pence Administration upgraded the U.S.-Armenia bilateral relationship to the level of a Strategic Dialogue.

CANDIDATE:

As a 2024 Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris issued the following letter to Armenian Americans marking Armenian Independence Day

September 23, 2024

To the Armenian American community:

I send my best wishes to you as you celebrate Armenian Independence Day, which marks the day that the Armenian people voted to secede from the Soviet Union to be a free, independent nation.

While we celebrate, we must also never forget the Armenian Genocide, when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths. It is a tragedy that continues to shape the identity of the Armenian people. The Armenian American community’s resilience remains a source of inspiration in our collective American story.

I remain committed to a lasting peace between Armenia and its neighbors that respects sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.

The right for Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh to return safely to their homes is vital to restoring dignity to the Armenian people and stability to the region.

I will continue to support Armenia in its efforts to strengthen democracy and foster stability in the region.

Armenia and its people have a rich history that inspires us all to strive for liberty and justice. I remain committed to deepening the bonds between our nations and fostering a partnership that uplifts our shared values and aspirations. Together, we can build a more secure, just and free world.

Warmly,

Vice-President Kamala Harris

VICE PRESIDENT: As Vice President, Kamala Harris is part of an Administration that is acting against a broad array of core Armenian American policy priorities:

— During the 2020 Artsakh War, the Biden-Harris campaign made lofty promises to the Armenian American community – pledging to prohibit U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan. Just months later, the Biden Administration reneged on that commitment – and, in a callous act of betrayal, announced the reauthorization of security assistance to Azerbaijan just a day before recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

— The Biden-Harris Administration again reauthorized military assistance to Azerbaijan in 2022, even in the wake of Azerbaijan’s widely documented human rights violations and incursion into the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia – sending a clear signal to the despotic Aliyev regime that it would face no consequences for its authoritarian aggression.

— The Biden-Harris Administration failed to declare Azerbaijan’s 10-month siege of Artsakh a humanitarian crisis – legitimizing Baku’s use of starvation as a tool of negotiation.

— The Biden-Harris Administration ruled out the use of sanctions to constrain Azerbaijan’s aggression in a public statement by Special Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Lou Bono – undermining U.S. leverage over Baku.

— The Biden-Harris Administration refused to impose consequences on Azerbaijan following its military assault on Artsakh, despite having indicated during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. would “not countenance any attempt at ethnic cleansing.”

— The Biden-Harris Administration has committed only $15 million in humanitarian assistance to the 120,000 refugees forced from their homes by Azerbaijan – incommensurate with the dire needs of those displaced.

— The Biden-Harris Administration resumed high-level engagement with Azerbaijan in the absence of accountability – despite a commitment by Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia James O’Brien that there would be “no business as usual” with Azerbaijan following its assault on Nagorno-Karabakh.

— The Biden-Harris Administration legitimized a fundamentally asymmetric and unjust “peace process” between Armenia and Azerbaijan without demanding the immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from Armenian territory or an internationally guaranteed right of return for Artsakh’s Armenians.

— The Biden-Harris Administration authorized the sale of F-16s and other defense articles to the Republic of Turkey, despite Turkey’s track record of regional destabilization – from its occupation of Cyprus, attacks on Kurdish populations in Syria and Iraq, and its support for Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and occupation of sovereign Armenian territory.

SENATOR: As a U.S. Senator, Kamala Harris had a mixed record on issues of concern to the Armenian American community:

— Senator Kamala Harris, during the 44-Day Artsakh war, never condemned Azerbaijan/Turkey for their attacks against Armenia and Artsakh, nor called for accountability for Azerbaijani accountability and sanctions for war crimes committed by the genocidal Aliyev and Erdogan regimes.

— Senator Kamala Harris was a cosponsor of Armenian Genocide legislation and joined her Senate colleagues in unanimously adopting S.Res.150 – the Armenian Genocide Resolution – in 2019.

— Senator Kamala Harris cosigned letters led by former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez supporting U.S. assistance for demining efforts in Nagorno Karabakh.

California Attorney General: As California Attorney General, Kamala Harris issued statements and filed a”friend of the court” brief regarding the Armenian Genocide.

— California Attorney General Kamala Harris, in 2015, issued a statement properly commemorating the Armenian Genocide. “Today, we honor the memory of the nearly 1.5 million Armenians who were brutally murdered from 1915 to 1923 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian Genocide is one of humanity’s darkest chapters. We must never forget the atrocities committed against the Armenian people as we remain vigilant in our fight against civil and human rights violations,” stated Harris.

— California Attorney General Kamala Harris, in 2012, authored a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the right of Armenian Americans to seek justice in connection with unpaid Genocide-era insurance policies. (Movsesian v. Victoria Versicherung AG, 670 F.3d 1067 (9th Cir. 2012)). Harris, joined by several other states, filed a similar brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals’ adverse decision (Arzoumanian, et al. v. Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft AG). The Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2013.