US Congress holds briefing on Karabakh conflict settlement

January 7, 2016 By administrator

US Karabakh meeting WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a closed-door briefing today dedicated to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

The briefing was attended by the Committee members and the OSCE Minsk Group U.S. Co-Chairman James Warlick, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) official website reports.

During the briefing, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce urged Barack Obama to join them and called on peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

“Violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is at the highest point in decades. Just last month we heard reports of heavy weapon attacks and tank artillery fire – a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement. As Ambassador Warlick has said, this isn’t a ‘frozen conflict,’ but is a forgotten conflict – with a real risk of spinning out of control. That is why we need all snipers to be withdrawn, more international monitors to be deployed and gunfire locator systems to be put in place to increase transparency and accountability for each and every cross-boundary violation. Acts of aggression must be clearly condemned. The faster the administration can help put these in place, the quicker it can help put an end to the killing and avert war,” Ed Royce said.

As reported earlier, Congressmen Ed Royce and Eliot Engel had urged their government not to turn a blind eye to Azerbaijani aggression.

US Congress overwhelmingly approved a fiscal package with $1.15 trillion in spending and $620 billion in tax breaks

December 18, 2015 By administrator

Congress on Friday morning overwhelmingly gave final approval to a sweeping, year-end fiscal package that includes a $1.15 trillion spending measure as well as $620 billion in tax breaks for businesses and low-income workers.
The bill now goes to the White House, where President Obama has said he will sign it.

Armenian President addresses a reception at US Congress

October 1, 2015 By administrator

On 30 September, President Serzh Sargsyan took part in a reception held by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation at the United States Congress in honor of the RA president. Apart from foundation representatives, the reception was attended about two dozen congressmen, e.g. Ed Royce, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congressmen Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Jackie Speier, Robert Dold, Jim Costain-Dave Trott, David Valadao, Judy Chu, and by some influential representatives of the Armenian community. During the congressional reception, the RA president made an address at the end of which the foundation members handed over the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation Medal to Morgenthau’s grandson Robert Morgenthau. The congressmen and the other guests welcomed the RA president and stressed that as friends of Armenia and the Armenian people, they will thenceforth continue to stand beside Armenia to help deal with its vital problems and contribute to the development, strengthening and well-being of Armenia.

Remarks by the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
at the Congressional Luncheon

Eminencies,
Honorable Chairman Royce,
Distinguished Members of the Congress,
Distinguished Messrs. Eurnekian and Tenenbaum,

It is a great honor for me to be here today. This gathering is paying tribute not only to the victims, survivors, and their descendants, but also to the entire Armenian people. This is equally an expression of respect for all nations that have ever gone through the ordeal which is genocide.

This provides yet another opportunity to state that tolerance, alongside pluralism and equality in rights, is the source of ultimate values, though it may also be nefarious when the object of tolerance is vice, when the deplorable is tolerated. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel prize winner, said: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”

In this respect the initiative to posthumously award the International Raoul Wallenberg Medal to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., is momentous and possesses a particular significance. I am delighted that his grandson, Mr. Robert Morgenthau, is here with us today.

Mr. Morgenthau,

Your grandfather was the first American to tell the world of the mass atrocities by the Young Turks against the Armenian people, qualifying them as a “campaign of race extermination”. Holding the office of the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and having witnessed the nightmare first hand, he was to subsequently write in his Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story:“I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915. … For all I know this represents a new crime pursuing wholesale extermination.” Subsequently this new crime that Morgenthau detailed was to be qualified as Genocide by Raphael Lemkin.

They say that as long as memory stays alive, so does the truth. Quite a number of facts associated with the Armenian Genocide have passed to us through Henry Morgenthau’s memoir. To this day his account is one of the most important original sources documenting the premeditated nature of the savage and inhuman crimes by the Young Turks. It is appropriate to recall how one of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, interior minister of the Ottoman Empire Talaat had reproved Ambassador Morgenthau: “Why are you so interested in the Armenians anyway? You are a Jew; these people are Christians… Why can’t you let us do with these Christians as we please?”

It was the same Morgenthau who conceptualized and advocated for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. Hundreds of its workers in various countries, including Armenia, undertook to provide care for orphans, saving tens of thousands of parentless Armenian children from imminent death. Upon completion of diplomatic service, he continued humanitarian endeavors, providing assistance to Armenian, Assyrian and Greek exiles who had survived the mass slaughter and had been purged from their homeland. This remains one of the highlights of American humanism.

Henry Morgenthau’s name is indelible for every Armenian: as a champion putting truth above silence, who preferred the selfless and sometimes unsafe task of helping those who were in peril. It is not incidental that the memorial wall next to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, among other intellectuals and prominent figures who had raised their voice against the Armenian Genocide, contains an urn with soil from Morgenthau’s grave. In April this year the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute held a tribute, with the participation of his family, launching the publication of Morgenthau’s Story in the Armenian language. Moreover, the Armenian Postal service issued a stamp in his memory, and I too attended its official First Day cancellation ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Several months ago I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It is a most compelling and articulate testimonial to the crime of genocide. Museums on crimes perpetrated against humanity convey a clear message to current and future generations: never to forget the grim chapters of history. Still, we should not rely solely on museums and memorials. Remaining faithful to the dictum “We Remember,” we must do everything possible, and the impossible, to secure a safe future for those who come after us. Hence, propagating the mission of Henry Morgenthau and his successors acquires great importance for us not only with a view of preserving memory for the future generations of Armenians and Americans, but also in the context of humanitarian education on a global scale. We should converge our efforts to keep alive the memory of the victims of the crime of genocide, to build a world free of violence. The prevention of the crime of genocide and fighting its denial is an important pivot in this pursuit.

I reiterate my words of gratitude addressed to the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation for their efforts to safeguard universal memory. Eternalizing the memory of the Mets Yeghern, Shoah and other crimes of genocide, persistently presenting these horrendous episodes of human history, and sending through them important messages to the generations to come shall have a conclusive significance in keeping the world free of that crime.

I address words of gratitude to the U.S. Congress and to all Congressmen and Congresswomen present, who have spared no efforts over years towards the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Your role in the recognition and condemnation of our national tragedy is undeniable. I am certain that the work you have done shall culminate in its logical conclusion.

While being here, at the Capitol Hill, I would like to extend our words of gratitude to the people of the United States, and the U.S. Congress for the humanitarian assistance allocated to Nagorno Karabakh over the years. That assistance has been significant for the people of Artsakh both from the humanitarian and, first and foremost, moral perspective. It comes to testify, time and again, that the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has not been forgotten in its efforts to build independent and democratic state while countering the persistent provocations of Azerbaijan, which has chosen the path to perfect the tyranny. It is unambiguous that the Nagorno Karabakh people’s path toward freedom, toward determination to master its fate on its own, and toward building a democratic society is irrevocable. In this context, your continued support is indeed crucial.

Dear attendees,

Allow me to conclude in an optimistic key: if there is agony and genocide in this world, there also exist Wallenberg and Morgenthau, who have long become common name for us. Common name, since they stand for all humanitarians of this world, whether Christian or Muslim, female or male, kin or alien, jeopardizing their existence, saving Armenians and Assyrians, Greeks and Jews, Darfurians and others from the claws of death. Henry Morgenthau and Raoul Wallenberg, and those who carry their torch today can bring about change, help life triumph over death.

Source: radio Armenia

US Speaker Boehner to leave Congress

September 25, 2015 By administrator

Speaker of the US House John Boehner will resign from his leadership position and give up his seat at the end of October.

Mr Boehner has been under pressure from the conservative wing of his party, and in particular over government funding for Planned Parenthood.

Aides say the speaker had planned to resign last year.

The announcement comes one day after the speaker hosted Pope Francis for a major address to the US Congress.

The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher says Mr Boehner has been walking a knife’s edge for years, trying to balance the business of Congress with a grass-roots conservative faction in his caucus that demanded confrontation and saw compromise as weakness.

Mr Boehner is expected to make a public announcement at 10:00 local time (15:00 BST).

Rep Bill Huizenga said in a tweet that the speaker made the announcement to his conference this morning.

In a statement, Mr Boehner’s staff said that he had intended to resign at the end of last year, but the surprise defeat of then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor “changed that calculation”.

The speaker’s resignation comes as Republicans have been deliberating over plans to defund women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood.

The organisation has come under fire from anti-abortion activists who claimed its employees were selling foetal organs.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to pass Al Franken’s bill to ban members of Congress from becoming lobbyists!

August 30, 2015 By administrator

Click here to sign in: http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/congress-lobbying-ban

Senators Al Franken and Michael Bennet introduced a bill this month to ban the outrageous practice of former members of Congress cashing in as big money lobbyists.

The bill, the Close the Revolving Door Act, also:

Increases penalties for breaking the Lobbying Disclosure Act
Extends the ban on congressional staff becoming lobbyists, from only one year to six
Gives the public better online access to information about who lobbies Congress

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to pass the Close the Revolving Door Act to ban Senators and Representatives from ever becoming lobbyists.

ANCA urges Ethics Committee to publish data on pro-Azerbaijani funding of US Congressmen

August 7, 2015 By administrator

The findings of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) regarding the pro-Azerbaijani funding of the Congressmen should be publicly released, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) statement reads.

The request is addressed to the Committee on Ethics to which OCE is accountable. ANCA Chairman Kenneth Hachikian addressed the letter to the Committee members Charles W. Dent and Linda T. Sanchez.

“The Committee should not to withhold from American citizens any information involving foreign attempts to manipulate our democratic system or that, in the Committee’s own words, reveals “evidence of concerted, possibly criminal, efforts” by any party—foreign or domestic—seeking any manner of undue influence with U.S. policymakers,” the statement reads.

ANCA urges defenders of government transparency to communicate their request to the Committee and make the 70-page analysis public.

Earlier, the Committee cleared 10 members of the House of Representatives and 30 members of Congressional staff, who took part in the conference “U.S.-Azerbaijan Convention: Vision for the Future.” The Committee decided that these politicians didn’t knowingly violate the law, since their trip was nominally funded by the Assembly Friend of Azerbaijani (AFAZ) and groups connected with the Turcik American Association (TAA). The latter apparently concealed the fact that the trip was actually funded by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

The Committee on Ethics sent the investigation results to the Department of Justice, but refused to release them, in defiance of its usual practice.

Houston Chronicle was the first newspaper to refer in July 2014 to the suspicions regarding the trips to Azerbaijan. It was followed by Washington Post in May 2015, which mentioned about the aforementioned report prepared by the Committee.

Center for Responsive Politics referred to the question on why the Committee is concealing the data. The article is available here: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/08/ethics-chair-received-contributions-from-donors-linked-to-groups-in-azerbaijan-probe/

Danny Tarkanian second Armenian American to run for US Congress

July 14, 2015 By administrator

Danny Tarkanian

Nevada’s Danny Tarkanian today became the second American of Armenian heritage this election cycle to announce his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Armenian National Congress of America reported.

Danny Tarkanian joined California’s Katcho Achadjian who is also running for a seat in Congress.

If they win, Achadjian and Tarkanian will join Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jackie Speier, the two current U.S. Representatives of Armenian descent

Armenia News – NEWS.am

Have Iraqi Kurds lied to U.S. Congress?

May 23, 2015 By administrator

By Michael Rubin | American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) under the auspices of President Masoud Barzani has been undertaking a full-court press of lobbying in Washington in order to get direct provision of weaponry. The KRG has hired at least four lobbying firms, spending several million dollars, and has leveraged several former officials and businessmen hopeful to have KRG contracts to act as unofficial and, frankly, illegal lobbyists with Congress.

The crux of the Kurdish lobbying campaign is to convince Congress that:

Kurdistan lacks weaponry to fight the Islamic State. Iraqi Kurdistan may seek more weaponry, but a greater problem is that political bickering within the KRG is preventing the weapons from getting where they need to be. After Ramadi’s fall, the largely Kurdish city of Kirkuk is next in the Islamic State’s crosshairs. And yet, Masoud Barzani and his sons Masrour Barzani (chief of the intelligence service) and Mansour Barzani (a general) refuse to deliver weaponry to peshmerga in Kirkuk. The problem? Kirkuk did not vote for Barzani’s political party.The Kurds have acquired weaponry directly from Iran and several European countries. In the idea that he lacks weaponry, Barzani has found an effective tale, and he’s milking it to great effect. Alas, rather than use the weapons against the Islamic State, he is hoarding them for use against his Kurdish political rivals.

Baghdad does not provide weaponry to Kurdistan. Along the lines of the above point, the Kurdish line that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s government is refusing to transfer weaponry to the Kurds is an outright lie. It’s simply false. Baghdad doesn’t itself have enough, but what it does get, it shares. Indeed, even the United States government recognizes that in some ways, the KRG is better armed than Baghdad. Check out this State Department press briefing from yesterday (emphasis mine):

“They [the Islamic State] wield these things [car and truck bombs] so they’re totally impervious to a lot of weapons systems that the Iraqis have to try to take them out. It was one of – I have to say it was one of Abadi’s main demands when he was here. He needed a weapon system to defeat suicide VBIEDs. And we made the decision immediately while he was here to get 1,000 AT4 anti-tank systems to Iraqi Security Forces. And those are going to be arriving fairly soon. And that’s specifically, as I understand it – I’ll defer to experts on this, but that’s specifically a kind of close-in weapon system for a VBIED that is coming in your direction. The Peshmerga have been using them to good effect and we’re getting 1,000 to the Iraqi Security Forces.”

So, it seems that despite the complaints of no weaponry, the Kurds have AT4 missiles but have not shared them with Baghdad to help Baghdad defeat the Islamic State. And they are not giving them to Kirkuk, and they refused to provide them to the Yezidis before the fall of Mount Sinjar.

Kurdistan is pro-American and a bulwark against Iran. Kurds like America, but the Kurdistan government is opportunistic; it is not ideologically or culturally attached to the United States. Any Congressman who believes lobbyists who use concern about Iran to push deeper relations with Iraqi Kurdistan should request an intelligence briefing. The Iranians have penetrated as deeply into the Kurdish leadership as they have in Baghdad. Qassem Soleimani, head of the Qods Force, the elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans, spends as much time as a guest of Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan as he did as a guest of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. There is no intelligence which the United States provides the KRG that does not find its way to Soleimani within hours. Indeed, Barzani has previously betrayed American intelligence and plans to the IRGC. And, while Kurdish leaders say the right things to American congressional delegations in Erbil or during visits to Washington, they say the complete opposite in Iran and to Iranian delegations. Remember, the Kurdish leaders spent their exile years in Iran; ties are deep, even if they are less ties of the heart and more the result of Iranian blackmail and extortion.

Kurdistan is democratic. Most Kurds seek democracy, but its leaders do not. Masoud Barzani is a dictator who refused to step down at the end of his term. Given a choice to be Nelson Mandela or Bashar al-Assad, Barzani chose Assad. The only difference between the two is that American officials still believe the spin of reform when it comes to Barzani. Indeed, Barzani has modeled his Kurdistan Democratic Party after Assad’s Baath Party minus the Arab nationalism; it’s just what he knows. Journalists who criticize Barzani end up in prison or worse. Lobbyists and KRG officials may like to suggest that “Kurdistan is a new Israel.” Like Israel, Kurdistan does respect freedom of religion. But the similarities end there: Kurdistan is not democratic; it does not respect rule-of-law; it restricts press freedom; American and European firms have learned it no more upholds contractual commitments than do China or Turkmenistan; and it does not protect its own people from ISIS.

Every Iraqi should receive weaponry to fight the Islamic State, but Kurdish lies have consequence. Not only does a credulous Congress accepting Kurdish spin fail to correct the real problems preventing Kurdish success against the Islamic State, but it backfires and helps the Iranians. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has bent over backwards to accommodate US interests and nudge Iraqis closer to Iran. Congressional willingness to supply Sunni militias directly with arms (instead of respect the fact that Sunnis are fighting alongside Shi’ites in the Iraqi Security Forces) or to treat Kurdistan as a separate country, whether or not it deserves to be, have only strengthened the hand of the most radical pro-Iranian elements in Baghdad who rightly say that Abadi put his trust in the Americans, and the Congress responded to his outreach by undercutting Iraq. It’s time Congress has a real conversation about Iraq strategy, how best to help Kurdistan, and how to defeat the Islamic State. It should not allow itself to be duped by a family with a flag.

Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. Rubin instructs senior military officers deploying to the Middle East and Afghanistan on regional politics, and teaches classes regarding Iran, terrorism, and Arab politics on board deploying U.S. aircraft carriers. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, both pre- and post-war Iraq, and spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. His newest book, Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes examines a half century of U.S. diplomacy with rogue regimes and terrorist groups.

Read more by Michael Rubin

10 members of US Congress took trip secretly funded by foreign government – The Washington Post

May 14, 2015 By administrator

The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference in Baku, on the Caspian Sea, in 2013 for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members, according to a confidential ethics report obtained by The Washington Post. Three former top aides to President Obama appeared as speakers at the event.

Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through nonprofit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet republic, according to the 70-page report by the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative arm of the House.

The report reflects the most extensive investigation undertaken by the ethics office, which was created seven years ago in response to a number of scandals on Capitol Hill, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s illegal funding of lawmakers’ trips.

The nonprofit corporations allegedly filed false statements with Congress swearing that they were sponsoring the conference. The findings have been referred to the House Ethics Committee for investigation of possible violations of congressional rules and federal laws that bar foreign governments from trying to influence U.S. policy.

SOCAR released a statement saying that its support of the conference was no secret and blaming the nonprofits for not filing the proper disclosures.

“At no time did SOCAR hide from the attendees of the conference our involvement,” the statement said. “SOCAR has never been under investigation in this matter because the responsibility for disclosing SOCAR’s financial support for the conference fell to those who were the trip’s sponsors.

RELEASE Fourth Congress of Western Armenians in Paris

March 27, 2015 By administrator

Fourth Congress of Western Armenians in Paris

The fourth Congress of Western Armenians will be held Saturday and Sunday at the Hotel Méridien Etoile Hotel; Paris, 81 Boulevard Gouvion St. Cyr. (Subway line 1 “Porte Maillot”).

The primary goal of the “National Congress of Western Armenians” is to promote all activities to defend the interests and rights of Western Armenians, descendants of former citizens of the Ottoman Empire, contribute to the development of Armenian culture whose language and literature, and the safeguarding and protection of Armenian historical rights, provide a reflection on the progress of the peace by peaceful means in areas of conflict through conferences or meetings.

Therefore, the “Armenian National Congress Westerners” will:

Be sure to obtain national and international recognition as a representative body, including working for making part of the Economic and Social Council of the UN.
Contribute and participate with derecherches and academic levels who are interested in the genocide and its consequences.
Working for the preservation of civilization and the Armenian culture and for the conservation and restoration of architectural monuments.
Study and evaluate the collective and private damage suffered by the Armenian people since 1915. This will organize and mobilize international lawyers to file a motion to national and international courts.
Establish and develop democratically branches in Armenian communities, taking into account the specificities of each.
Ensure, during the activity of CNAO, collaborate with the authorities of the Republic of Armenia, sharing tasks.

Syllabus

Saturday March 28

Registration: 8:30 am. till 10 am.

Session 1: 10 am till 1:30 pm (with a coffee break of 20 minutes).

President of the Session; Mr. Souren Seraydarian.

Representative of the embassy of the Republic of Armenia

MP Representing Shirag Torosyan … MP Ali Halo Parliament of KRG

MP Yerwant Eminyan representative of the Armenian community of Kurdistan

Bondos Greek community statement Shabo Akgul representative of the Assyrian community

Mikail Aslan representative of the Dersim Zaza community

MP Raffi Hovhanissian

MP Shant Tchintchinian

Hintchagian party representative

Ramgavar party representative

Yelanguezian Juan (Argentina)

Lunch: Buffet lunch served entre 1.30 and 2.30 pm.

Session 2: Presentation of the deferral on the rights of the Western Armenians to the 4th Congress.

2.30 pm.till 6.30 pm.

President of the Session: Mr. Sevak Artsruni.

Panelists: Vahan Melikyan and Levon Gevorgyan.

(Coffee break at 4.30 pm). Questions, discussions and Proposals.

7.00 pm. Reception.

Sunday March 29

Voluntary participation in the holy mass at the Armenian Cathedral St. John the Baptist

Session 3: 2 pm till 6.30 pm (coffee break around 4.15pm.)

President of the Session: Mr. Souren Seraydarian

Approval of the text of the Memorandum Discussion on Strategic Elements

Expansion of the international working group on continuous dialog with Turkish civil

society and state Representatives as well as follow up judicial action.

Approval of the 4th Congress Press releases and letters.