WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has outlined the Armenian American community’s concerns regarding the Bush Administration’s seven-year record of largely counterproductive, frequently unfriendly, and, at times, antagonistic policies toward Armenia and the Armenian American community.

The April 4th letter, signed by ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, listed thirteen areas in which the President and his Administration fell short of both their own commitments and our nation’s basic human rights standards, retreated from America’s historic commitment to Armenia, and strained – through a series of ill-advised policies and often hostile actions – the enduring ties that have long bound together the American and Armenian peoples. The following points are covered in significant detail in the 6-page letter, the full text of which is provided below:

1) The President’s broken campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide
2) Opposition to the Congressional Genocide Resolution
3) The Evans firing and the Hoagland nominations
4) The waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act
5) Reduction in aid to Armenia
6) Abandonment of the military aid parity agreement
7) Mistaken listing of Armenia as a terrorist country
8) Lack of U.S.-Armenia Presidential visitations
9) Failure to confront the desecration of the Djulfa cemetery
10) Failure to maintain a balanced policy on Nagorno Karabagh
11) Taxpayer financing of the Baku-Ceyhan bypass of Armenia
12) Failure to effectively pressure Turkey and Azerbaijan to end their blockades
13) Neglect of relations with the Armenian American community

Over the course of the past seven years, the ANCA has repeatedly requested, to no avail, the opportunity to meet with the President and his Secretary of State to discuss these and other issues of concern to Armenian Americans. This most recent ANCA letter, once again, asks for such a meeting, inviting the Secretary of State to visit with the collective leadership of the Armenian American community to discuss U.S. foreign policy toward Armenia and the surrounding region over the remaining months of the Bush Administration.

April 4, 2008

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Re: Administration policies on Armenian American issues

Dear Secretary Rice:

As the Administration of George W. Bush completes its final year in office, we write to once again ask you to meet with the collective leadership of the Armenian American community to discuss our commonly held views and express our shared disappointments regarding the Administration’s policies on a broad range of foreign policy issues of special concern to our nation’s one and a half million Americans of Armenian heritage.

We are profoundly disappointed by the Administration’s complicity in Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and troubled that its approach toward Armenia – measured against the standard of past presidents, the special relationship that has long existed between our two countries, and the enduring ties and shared values that have historically brought together the American and Armenian peoples – has been, in our view, largely counterproductive, frequently unfriendly, and, at times, antagonistic.

Closer to home, we remain troubled by the Administration’s failure to reach out to and to meaningfully engage the Armenian American community. Rather than looking to the Armenian American community as a uniquely valuable source of regional understanding, a wellspring of civic activism, or a vital bridge to the future growth and expansion of our bilateral ties, the White House and State Department chose instead to dismiss those Americans who, by virtue of their heritage, feel most strongly about these very issues. At every key juncture since 2001, the Administration placed artificial obstacles in the way of greater Armenian American participation in and support for the formulation and implementation of balanced and constructive policies toward Armenia and the surrounding region. This approach in our view reflects both a missed opportunity and an unfortunate symbol of an Administration that lacks the confidence to engage with its citizens and answer openly for the policies it advances in the name of all Americans.

We have, as you know, in a series of letters over the past seven years, shared our concerns regarding a broad array of Armenian American issues, thirteen of which we have listed below in the text of this correspondence. We have repeatedly noted that the Administration’s policy of active complicity in Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide represents both a moral outrage against America’s core values, and a shameful retreat, under foreign pressure, from our nation’s proud legacy as the world’s leading defender of human rights. This moral failing has, of course, only been compounded by the Administration’s strident opposition to the Armenian Genocide Resolution and the State Department’s firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Marshall Evans, for simply speaking truthfully about this atrocity.

We have the right to expect more from our government. America should never hide from the truth, no matter how “inconvenient” it may seem at the time to stand up for our values. History has taught us that we should never compromise our nation’s values or allow a foreign country to impose a gag-rule on our defense of human rights.

The Administration has also failed, over the past seven years, to stand by Armenia or, with the sole exception of Armenia’s participation in the Millennium Challenge Account, a merit-based program, to take meaningful steps to strengthen the U.S.-Armenia relationship. This performance is perhaps most notably illustrated by the consistent attempts by the White House and Department of State to sharply reduce U.S. economic aid levels, the “mistaken” listing in 2003 of Armenia as a terrorist watch country, and, of course, by the conspicuous refusal by President Bush to either visit Armenia or to officially invite the President of Armenia to the White House.

Equally troubling has been the Administration’s silence or even acquiescence in the face of the regional threats faced by the people of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. Among our concerns in this area, as reflected below, are the Administration’s unwarranted waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, its abandonment of its own Military Aid Parity Agreement, its support for taxpayer financing of the Baku-Ceyhan bypass of Armenia, its failure to maintain a balanced policy toward Nagorno Karabagh, and – perhaps most notably – the absence of any meaningful effort to pressure either Turkey or Azerbaijan to end their illegal blockades.

Finally, we are profoundly troubled that, over the course of the past seven years, despite repeated requests, neither our President nor our Secretary of State chose to meet with the leadership of our community to solicit our views, to share the rationale behind your policies, or to engage in an open and honest discussion about America’s future relationship with Armenia and the region. In light of the fact that we have not had an opportunity to meet, we would like to share with you the following areas in which we have been troubled by the shortcomings of the Administration’s policies and actions:

1) The President’s broken campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide

Almost immediately after taking office, President Bush abandoned his campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Rather than honoring this promise and keeping his word, 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. Moreover, the Administration has unconscionably echoed the Turkish government’s denial by claiming that the Armenian Genocide, one of the most studied genocides of the 20th century, “should be a matter of historical inquiry, not legislation.”

As you recall, on March 21st of last year, during a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, you refused to answer questions, posed by Congressman Adam Schiff, as to whether the murder of 1.5 million Armenians could be characterized as anything other than a genocide. Later that year, on October 17th, after the Foreign Affairs Committee passed the Armenian Genocide Resolution, the President, from the lawn of the White House, argued that, “one thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire,” claiming there was “more important work to do.”

2) Opposition to the Congressional Genocide Resolution

The Bush Administration, throughout its tenure, has actively sought to block the adoption of the Genocide Resolution in both the House and Senate. As recently as October of last year, the President spoke to the national media from the White House against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and, giving into the blackmail and threats of Turkey, personally lobbied Members of Congress to prevent the commemoration of this crime. We are particularly saddened that you personally lobbied against the resolution, as did Secretary of Defense Gates, and remain troubled by the truly unprecedented level of participation by the nation’s most senior leadership in a foreign government’s campaign to defeat human rights legislation in the U.S. Congress.

3) The Evans firing and the Hoagland nominations

The Bush Administration fired U.S. Ambassador John Evans, a career Foreign Service officer with 35 years of experience, simply for speaking truthfully about the Armenian Genocide. Despite numerous Congressional inquiries, the Administration continuously attempted to cover up the true reasons for his removal and the Turkish government’s protests over his statements. When the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) awarded John Evans the Christian Herter prize for constructive dissent, Administration officials forced AFSA to rescind the award just days before Turkish President Erdogan came to Washington, DC to meet with the President.

The President’s nominee to replace Ambassador Evans, Dick Hoagland, denied the Armenian Genocide in his written responses to Senate inquiries during his confirmation process. After being blocked by a Senatorial “hold” placed by Robert Menendez in the 109th Congress, the President again nominated Ambassador Hoagland, only to have this nomination blocked once again on the grounds that a diplomat who denies the Armenian Genocide cannot serve effectively as the U.S. representative to Armenia.

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 outrageous and escalating threats of renewed war and 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 his years in office, proposed to Congress that Freedom Support Act humanitarian and developmental aid to Armenia be reduced. The President’s most recent economic aid request, for Fiscal Year 2009, was $24 million, dramatically less than the $91.5 million, when he came into office in Fiscal Year 2001. Furthermore, for Fiscal Year 2009, the President’s budget proposed either maintaining or increasing aid to every former Soviet Republic, except Armenia, for which the President recommended a 59% decrease in aid.

6) Abandonment of the military aid parity agreement

The Bush Administration broke its word and abandoned its November 2001 agreement with Congress and the Armenian American community to maintain even levels of military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. In successive budgets submitted to Congress, the President effectively sought to tilt the regional military balance in favor of Azerbaijan, undermining the role of the U.S. as an impartial mediator, despite Azerbaijan’s increasingly violent threats of renewed aggression.

7) Mistaken listing of Armenia as a terrorist country

The Bush Administration 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 ever apologized for the offense caused by this mistake, choosing, instead, to attempt to justify what is broadly perceived as an effort to pander to Turkey by vilifying Armenia.

8) Lack of U.S.-Armenia Presidential visitations

The President neither visited Armenia nor did he invite the President of Armenia to visit the United States, despite similar visits by the leaders of Georgia and Azerbaijan.

9) Failure to confront the desecration of the Djulfa cemetery

The Administration again illustrated its lack of willingness to confront anti-Armenian violence and aggression in its lack of a meaningful response to the desecration, in December of 2005, of an ancient Armenian cemetery by Azerbaijani soldiers. As documented on videotape and in photos that were promptly shared with the State Department following the incident, approximately 200 troops using sledgehammers and picks systematically destroyed hundreds of khatchkars (intricately carved stone-crosses) in the cemetery in the Djulfa region of Nakhichevan. This sacred, 1,200-year old site of the Armenian Apostolic Church, once home to as many as 10,000 khatchkars, is now nearly entirely destroyed, and has, in fact, recently been converted into a firing range by the Azerbaijani military.

Despite repeated and sustained attempts on our part, calls for an investigation by International Christian Concern and other civic and faith-based groups, and a series of Congressional inquiries, the Administration, which has otherwise and elsewhere trumpeted it defense of religious freedoms, remained silent for several months, until March of the following year, when a State Department official finally condemned the desecration in response to an inquiry at a press conference in Yerevan. The 2006 State Department International Religious Freedom Report does not mention this widely reported demolition, although it does detail desecrations of other cemeteries in several other countries, such as in Estonia, France, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania and Germany.

10) 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. The negative impact of our unbalanced policy toward this conflict was compounded last year by the publication, in the State Department’s annual Human Rights report, of inaccurate official claims that Armenia occupies Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan. Although this error was not repeated in this year’s report, it did represent a setback to the peace process and undermined our role as an honest broker in this conflict.

11) Taxpayer financing of the Baku-Ceyhan bypass of Armenia

The Bush Administration, despite bipartisan Congressional opposition, supported American taxpayer-funded subsidies for the politically motivated Baku-Ceyhan pipeline route that, at the insistence of both Turkey and Azerbaijan, bypassed Armenia, to its significant economic detriment.

12) Failure to effectively 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 against land-locked Armenia.

13) Neglect of relations with the Armenian American community

Breaking with the tradition of the last several Administrations, President Bush and his Secretaries of State failed to reach out in any meaningful way to our nation’s one and a half million citizens of Armenian heritage. Over the past seven years, the collective leadership of the Armenian American community was neither invited to the White House to consult with the President, or asked by the Secretary of State to meet and discuss our community’s priorities.

We would welcome the opportunity for the collective leadership of the Armenian American community to meet with you to discuss each of these issues, and others, in greater detail. We are confident that, if such a meeting can be arranged, we would benefit considerably from your insights and perspectives, and that, together, we will be able to explore ways in which we can work together toward our shared aims during the coming months.

Thank you for your review of our concerns and for your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,

[signed]
Kenneth V. Hachikian
Chairman