Aftandilian: Remembering Senator Ted Kennedy

By Gregory Aftandilian

Much has been written and said about the life of Senator Ted Kennedy since his death a short time ago. For me, his passing left me sad and reflective, for few people have touched me as profoundly as he did. I was fortunate to have worked for him in 1999 as a foreign policy fellow, an experience that was not only rewarding on a professional level but left a lasting impression as an example of how a person who wields so much influence and power can also render so much kindness and compassion.

Mr. & Mrs. Greg Aftandilian with Senator Ted Kennedy atthe Armenian Genocide commemorative event on Capitol Hill in April 1999. — Mr. & Mrs. Greg Aftandilian with Senator Ted Kennedy at the Armenian Genocide commemorative event on Capitol Hill in April 1999.

Growing up in Massachusetts and being interested in history and politics naturally led me to take an interest in Ted Kennedy and his policies. So when an opportunity came knocking while I was a State Department analyst (I was selected as a Brookings Congressional fellow in late 1998 to spend the following year working on Capitol Hill), I gravitated to the Kennedy office. Luckily, I was chosen by Kennedy’s senior staff to work as a fellow on foreign policy issues even before my colleagues in the fellowship program were able to obtain positions in other Congressional offices. I felt very fortunate in having landed such a plum assignment.

My first encounter with the Senator was, naturally enough, at an Irish cultural event at the Kennedy Center along the Potomac River in Washington. As a staffer, I was to hover around him as guests greeted him and to jot down notes if someone asked him to do a favor. Walking with him into the famous center and seeing the large bust of his slain brother made the evening especially moving. Perhaps because it was also an ethnic event, I chatted with him about the Armenian community in Massachusetts as I walked him to his car. I knew that a few years earlier he had hosted a wonderful reception for Catholicos Karekin I at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston where the two leaders got along famously, and I told him the sad news that the Catholicos was suffering from cancer. Upon hearing this, Kennedy stopped in his tracks and told me to draft a get-well note from him to the Catholicos first thing in the morning. Later that year, when the Catholicos succumbed to cancer, Kennedy asked me to draft a statement on his b
ehalf for the Congressional Record in tribute to the life of Karekin I.

These early encounters impressed upon me not only the Senator’s compassion but also his close ties to the Armenian community. That April, he spoke at the Armenian Genocide commemorative event on Capitol Hill and I was proud to have drafted his speech, which was later placed in the Congressional Record, and to have accompanied him to the event. However, on the ride over from the Senate to the House side, where the event was taking place, I saw that Kennedy, much to my chagrin, was not going over my draft, but seemed to be thinking about something else. Only later did I realize that he was collecting his thoughts before arriving at the event. There, he spoke from his heart and delivered a hard-hitting and moving speech, much better than I could have ever composed. That same month, Kennedy also received in his office the then-president of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, another memorable event. Kennedy opened the conversation with Kocharian by saying how his family and the Armenian people have had a long and enduring friendship, going back many decades. Later that year, I discovered that President John F. Kennedy, while a freshman at Harvard in the 1930’s, had tutored a poor Armenian American teenager in Cambridge, helped him graduate from high school, and kept in touch with him until his own tragic death in 1963. When I wrote an article about this story, based on an interview I conducted with the widow of the person who was tutored, Senator Kennedy was so moved by it that he directed me to send it to his sisters and his niece, Caroline Kennedy, and to the archives of the John F. Kennedy Library.

His commitment to the Armenian people extended to the political battle over Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which restricted U.S. aid to Azerbaijan because of its blockade of Armenia. In 1999, Kennedy went down to the Senate floor and took part in the debate to preserve Section 907 when opponents of Armenia were seeking its removal. It was typical of him to tell me that fellow supporters of Armenia, like himself, would prevail in the fight when the outcome of that vote initially looked uncertain. His participation in that debate helped keep Section 907 unchanged over the next two years.

Outside of working on Armenian issues for the Senator, I worked closely with his foreign policy advisor on various topics and together we briefed Kennedy for his meetings with a number of world leaders, including Egyptian President Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Irish Prime Minister Ahern, and Georgian President Shevardnadze. Kennedy always went out of his way to introduce me to these leaders, even though aides usually operate in the background. It was this personal touch of his that I always found so thoughtful and caring. When my son was born that year, Kennedy sent him a “warm Irish welcome” note that our family has treasured, as we have an inscribed print of one of his Cape Cod paintings.

As my fellowship was sadly coming to an end in late 1999, I heard of an opening on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and applied for it. Kennedy was legendary for being helpful to his staffers in their career pursuits and he did the same for me. If it were not for his personal intervention, I would have not gotten the job, as competition for such positions was extremely stiff. Seven years later, Kennedy and his staff were again instrumental in helping me obtain an international security affairs fellowship at Harvard.

Even after I left his office, Kennedy would always treat me with the same warmth and kindness as he did when I worked for him. When I would run into him in the corridors of the Senate, he would pat me on the back and ask me how I was doing. He took a genuine interest in all of his former staffers and would invite them to his annual Christmas parties where, after performing a hilarious skit in costume with his wife Vickie and making fun of himself, he would then move around the room to greet everyone personally.

Ted Kennedy never forgot his Irish ethnic roots and even though he grew up in wealth and privilege, he understood, probably based on his family’s background, that life was unfair at times, discrimination was a scourge that had to be defeated, and that public service meant championing the rights of all people. He worked assiduously and successfully for immigration reform early in his career, overturning laws that discriminated against people from outside of northern and western Europe. Thousands of ethnic families today, including Armenian American ones, owe their existence and opportunity in America to Kennedy’s immigration reform efforts. He similarly championed healthcare reform, believing that no American family should be denied health coverage for a loved one in need of care. And he championed human rights around the world, believing that basic freedoms of free speech and assembly should not be denied.

It was this compassion, both at the personal level and in the national and international arenas, that endeared him to so many people, including me. I was fortunate to have known him, even for a relatively short period of time, and will always be grateful for his friendship and the lessons he taught me.