Nearly all congressional candidates nationwide who supported Armenian-American issues were victorious during the Nov. 4 elections. The outcome was similarly positive for other candidates running in state and local races. Consequently, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) announced that more than 95 percent of its endorsed candidates had been successful.
Although both Republicans and Democrats have traditionally supported Armenian-American issues, there are some dark clouds looming over Armenian lobbying efforts in Washington due to major changes in the new Congress, which take effect in January 2015, during the critical Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
Several key pro-Armenian Democratic Senators will lose their leadership positions as a result of the new Republican majority. For example, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), rated A+ on Armenian issues by the ANCA, will no longer chair the Foreign Relations Committee. He will be replaced by Sen. Robert Corker (R-Tenn.), rated D+ by the ANCA, one of five Republican Senators who voted against the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the Foreign Relations Committee last April. In addition, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), rated A by the ANCA, will become Minority Leader and will be replaced by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), rated C+ and endorsed for reelection by the ANCA. McConnell has voted positively on some Armenian issues.
The picture is not any brighter on the House side, in terms of the position of its top leadership on Armenian-American issues. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who saw a major surge in his party’s majority, had announced during a recent visit to Ankara that the House of Representatives will not deal with the Armenian Genocide issue. No wonder the ANCA gave him a C rating. A glimmer of hope is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), rated B- and endorsed by the ANCA for reelection, who has maintained close contacts with his Armenian constituents. Fortunately, Cong. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), rated A+ and endorsed by the ANCA, will still chair the important Foreign Affairs Committee.
It is not surprising that the Turkish media has been gloating over the congressional election results. “Republicans favor Turkey on Armenian issue,” was one of the headlines in Sabah, a Turkish newspaper. Reporter Ragip Soylu wrote, “Some changes within the Senate will help Turkey’s distasteful experience with Congress.”
The “removal” of Menendez from the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee, he said, “will help Turkey’s uncomfortable and weak position in the Senate.” The reporter went on to call the continued Republican control of the House “more good news for Turkey as House Speaker John Boehner has already promised to not bring up the Armenian issue to the executive agenda of the chamber. ‘Congress won’t get involved in this issue. We don’t write history, we are not historians,’ he reportedly said during his visit to Ankara in April 2014.”
In another Sabah article, Ilnur Cevik confidently wrote that “Turkey’s fortunes are not so bad,” in the face of “the likely problems posed by the advent of the 100th year since the 1915 incidents regarding the Armenians during Ottoman times.” Cevik described Republicans as less “combative” on the Armenian issue as Democrats, “who are dying to appease the Armenian lobby in the U.S. and thus would be more receptive to a tough-worded motion regarding Armenians, especially in 2015 when the 100th year of the events during World War I when Armenians living under Ottoman rule were killed and the Armenians called this controversially a genocide.”
Another Turkish publication, “World Bulletin,” cheerfully headlined its report: “Republican Victory in U.S. Congress Benefits Turkey.” The article pointed out that “a Democrat-led Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee would have been a nightmare for Turkish-American relations, as it would have come out with bills on Armenian claims of genocide during the 1915 incidents in eastern Turkey.”
Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, confirmed the pro-Turkish orientation of the new Senate, as “it has been Republicans in the Senate who have blocked bills on genocide claims against Turkey.” Another Turkish analyst, Kadir Ustun, observed that the chance of passing a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide “is now lower than ever, as the Republicans are in control of Congress.”
It is now incumbent upon Armenian Americans who have strong ties with Republican congressional leaders to convince them to uphold Armenian initiatives, while exposing Turkey’s support for ISIS terrorists who threaten U.S. national interests in the Middle East.
Harut Sassounian
As if having a complete pro Armenian congress here in the USA will ever trump AIPAC and the pro-Turkish republican neocons that basically control ALL OUR FOREIGN POLICY?
Also was the ANCA really endorsing Mitch McConnell? And he was rated only a C+?
So he admits to 95% of ANCA supported and endorse candidates being victorious, yet he thinks that is bad.
His reasons?
Oh, yeah, the Turkish media. Because they never lied, nor tried to cause issue between law makers and Armenians.
Oh, and how “good” and “bright” was the Democrat controlled Senate for Armenians or Armenian cause?What did they EXACTLY achieve?
Even better, how “good” and “bright” was the democrat president so far?
Yeah, I thought so.
Sorry, Mr. Sassounian, you may have some good points in your past articles, but this one exposed you as cluess partisan.
You are the one who is revealed as the partisan. “Democrat controlled…democrat President” It’s called the “Democratic Party.” You give yourself away by torturing the English language just as Frank Luntz and Rush Limbaugh do.
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/democrat.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet)
As to the substance, Sen. Menendez’s removal from the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee is itself a decisive loss for Armenians. Even if you support Republicans, you cannot deny that Sen. Menendez has been unwavering in his support for Armenians’ concerns.
John, you are entitled to your politically biased opinions, but please read again the first half of my column. I bring up facts, not biased opinion. I recognize individual Democrats and Republicans who have been helpful to our Cause. I base my evidence on ANCA’s ratings, not Turkish opinion which in this case is in line with ANCA’s ratings.
Turkey may enjoy less clout. AIPAC has been skeptical for at least five years, and conservatives are deeply suspicious of Turkey’s help for ISIS. We’ll see.
@Alex,
Try to argue like a grown up and now like an angry teenager.
So If I state FACTS.
1. Senate was democrat controlled.
2. The current US president is a democrat (a far left liberal too)
That comes as partisan to you?
If find it funny you accuse others of “torturing the English language” while you fail (miserably) to understand the meaning of the word “partisan”, really pathetic too.
I am a conservative, do you understand the difference between a Conservative and Republican? Obviously not.
Your obsession, like a typical democrat with Rush Limbaugh bringing him in every discussion, even when he has nothing to do with it, is worthy of clinical study. I am surprised you did not yet bring the Koch brothers into this, or accused me of being racist just because I disagree with some of the clueless among us, or who knows you might even accuse me of waging war on women too. You seem to be a parroting partisan propaganda, and democrat talking points. But then again, your lack of self awareness is expect.
And your sources?Some nobody wrote an article on a college site, and then another one added an article on Wikipedia. Anyone can add an article and edit it on Wikipedia. It seems that the whole world, but you are aware of those facts.
Unlike you, I call things as I see them. If you are going to say that the current president, obama is not a democrat, or the senate was not controlled by democrats for the last few election cycles, then you are a waste of time, and are not interested in debate, but rather would play the victim and are just a troll.
You are lamenting Mendez? What has he achieved to the Armenian Cause?
Other than being engulfed into one scandal after the other, what exactly did he achieve?
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/your-2014-guide-scandals-surrounding-new-jersey-senator-bob-menendez/357360/
I also noticed that you and Mr. Sassounian conveniently avoided answering my questions.
How “good” and “bright” (as opposed to dark) was the democrat controlled Senate for the Armenian cause the last let’s say 2 election cycles?
How “good” and “bright” was obama to the Armenian cause?He is a democrat, ran on democrat ticket and represented the democratic party in 2 elections, remember?
Unless you think Obama is a Republican?You probably think that there is only party in America, Republican, and the rest are just people who appose them, called a “terrible name” like democrat…
Let me ask again.
How did the US-Armenain relations do under the democrat controlled Senate and Democrat president?
Let me save you the trouble making up stuff. US aid to Armenian was cut, aid to Turkey and Azerbaijan was increased. That’s just for starters.
During his campaign, obama promised the world to everyone, including Armenian Genocide recognition. Now, 6 years in the white house, 2 years into his 2nd term, where is that? Instead, he calls Erdogan his “trusted friend”, and avoided saying the word Genocide in 6 years so far on April 24.
You defend all this, and attack me as a partisan?
You know what, we Armenians in the US are bringing all this to ourselves. We vote for those who are playing us. Just the like the Jews in the US, they vote democrat, and democrats go out of their way to attack their interests.
You can vote and support democrats. That’s your opinion and you are entitled to it, and it is a free country. But don’t assume that you are always right, and NEVER use rhetoric and innuendo (not to mention juvenile personal attacks) as if they were facts.
As a conservative, I disagree with the Republican party almost as much as I disagree with democrats. The Republican party today keeps compromising and ignoring its base. But given what the democrats did to the US, to minorities in general and how they play them and keep them poor and marginalized, and how they played with Armenians and used them, I’d vote and support anyone other than a democrat.
Yes, you can use conspiracy theories, debunked myths, or if everything else fails, attack personally, but you can’t hide cold hard facts.
The democrats are just playing us Armenians, like they played minorities for ages.
I know your response will be as “nice” as your initial response (assuming this post does not get censored), so I’ll save you the trouble. I will no longer respond to you. I don’t think you have knowledge or maturity to discuss this objectively and in a sane way.
I’ll leave you with this little thing about your democrat heroes you are lamenting their humiliation in the midterm 2014 elections.
Richard Gephardt (remember him?) a Democrat, who now work for lobbying firms contracted by Turkey to oppose any recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Remember, this was one of the most famous democrats in the Congress, ran for president in 2004.
Tell me again how democrats are in favor of us Armenians.
While you do that, read this too.
“Today, I humbly bow in memory of the Armenian martyrs, who died in the name of freedom.” On the 90th anniversary of this great human tragedy”
I’ll leave you to guess/research who said that, and try to find one democrat president who even something even remotely close to that.
Wake me up when your democrats lobby to get the Armenian Genocide recognized and force turkey to admit its past. Until then your argument falls flat.
Best of luck to you in your life.
“John, you are entitled to your politically biased opinions”
Nice Mr. Sassounian, you post a partisan based article, and I am the one who is politically biased.
In your same article you cite ANCA saying 95% of their endorsed candidates were elected, yet you think this is bad for Armenians. Obviously you can’t understand why some of us have a problem with this.
So if you are going to use “but this guy got C and the other got a B” and then try to build your argument that, you’d have to excuse me and few others of not taking this as anything but pure partisan nonsense.
Good luck to you. I used to read your articles in the past, and had some admiration for some of them, but this showed me that underneath, there was a different story.
Out of respect for Armenian Weekly, i will stop responding to this article’s comments. You can have the last word on this. But then I leave you with a small reminder, you and “Alex” both failed to answer my question.
Take care.
The sad reality is that whether the Congress is majority controlled by Democrats or Republicans, it makes no difference to our cause.
Case in point. Senate Resolution 410 was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Democrats and Republicans voted yes.
Harry Reid, who is the Senate Majority Leader did not bring the Resolution to the Senate floor. He certainly would have had enough democratic and republican votes to pass the resolution in the senate.
Instead the resolution has been languishing in the Senate Legislative calendar # 364, where eventually it will die.
So what difference does it make that Senator Reid is losing his position as the Majority leader. Just like any other US politician, he has no moral integrity and no spine to stand up for justice and truth.
Vart Adjemian
Paron Sassounian,
Please wake up from your American dream and realize that there is no democracy in the American empire and that are no “pro-Armenian” politicians in Washington. With reliable allies like Iran and Russia, our small, poor, remote, landlocked and NATO-blockaded homeland in the south Caucasus does not serve Washington’s imperial agenda in the region. “Pro-Armenian” politicians in the US are there merely to give our naive community some worthless lip-service and recruit some anti-Armenian political activists in the process. With that said, every single one of the “pro-Armenian” American politicians today would become anti-Armenian in a heartbeat – as soon as they come to positions of power.
PS: Senator Menendez poses a serious danger to Armenia due to his anti-Russian hysteria.