It appears that my prediction about Matt Bryza leaving the State Department and working as a lobbyist is coming true. After his brief stint as ambassador to Azerbaijan came to a premature end, Bryza disclosed to the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper last week that he will be “advising people, government, and private sector on major investment projects.”
It remains to be seen whether Bryza’s planned activities fall within the legal definition of “lobbying” and “advocacy” on behalf of third parties, such as Turkish and Azeri entities, given the restrictions imposed by U.S. law on former government officials. Depending on the specific type of activity, there is either a one- or two-year ban. However, in the case of “very senior officials” such as Bryza, a former deputy assistant secretary of state, there is a lifetime ban. He would certainly be prohibited from having contact with former State Department colleagues on behalf of other parties regarding official matters he was involved with as a government employee.
In his interview with Hurriyet, Bryza validated in his own words the accusation that he was biased and unprofessional while acting as the American co-chair of OSCE’s Minsk Group of mediators on the Karabagh (Artsakh) conflict. At the time, he was repeatedly criticized for being anti-Armenian, pro-Azerbaijani, and pro-Turkish. Senators Barbara Boxer and Robert Menendez, who placed a hold on his nomination as ambassador to Azerbaijan, and the Armenian National Committee of America, which objected to Obama’s ill-advised decision to send Bryza to Baku without Senate confirmation, are now fully vindicated.
In the past, Bryza’s apologists used the convenient excuse that as a government official, he had no choice but to support the president’s position on the Armenian Genocide and related issues. Yet, now that he is a free man, why does he continue to parrot those same Turkish-inspired, anti-Armenian slogans? Could it be that Bryza, in and out of government, has been trying to ingratiate himself to his future paymasters? Otherwise, why would he give Hurriyet the standard Turkish line that politicians and parliaments should not get involved in acknowledging the Armenian Genocide?
To score points with Turkish and Azeri officials, Bryza angrily lashed out at the ANCA: “The organization that blocked me will keep bringing up this issue forever. But it’s not up to governments but to people to make their own determination on how to characterize it. … Turkey has the ability to influence that debate in a significant way. … The radicals that blocked me hate that. They don’t want to have an open debate; an open dialogue is their enemy.”
While applauding the more open attitude among some Turks show toward a discussion of the Armenian Genocide, Bryza finds as “legitimate” the Turkish official view that “this should not be recognized politically as genocide. It’s not the business of any politician in any country to characterize these events as genocide or not as genocide. It has to be up to societies—not to others—to have a decision taken based on a political calendar. To me, that’s dishonest.”
Bryza then took his pro-Turkish bias a little too far by revealing his denialist views: “Truth is on everyone’s side, especially on Turkey’s side. The debate about this [Armenian Genocide] issue is really one-sided right now. Anybody who voices a different view is attacked as a genocide-denier, which immediately means you are against human rights. If you believe there was a genocide committed, you can equally argue looking from a narrow definition of the word that genocide was committed to many others, against Turks or Muslims in eastern Anatolia. Let’s have a dialogue of the multiple atrocities [against] many groups. Let’s talk about it all. Let’s be fair and not forget the suffering of others.”
Finally, Bryza seems to have fulfilled his life-long dream of living in Istanbul. During his 2005 visit to Ankara, after a U.S. Embassy official introduced him to local journalists as “an old friend of Turkey,” Bryza unabashedly declared: “I am thrilled to be back in Turkey. Turkey in many ways feels for me like a second home. … I can’t spend enough time in your beautiful country. I hope to be back soon and often.” In a column I wrote at the time, I expressed the hope that “Bryza would soon realize his wish and retire in Turkey permanently.” Now, his wish has come true! Hurriyet reported last week that after leaving Baku last month he had settled in Istanbul. “You can’t imagine how happy I am to be in Istanbul,” he exclaimed. “Look at me, I am married to a Turkish woman.”
Harut Sassounian
So he is married to a Turkish woman. What a surprise that he is pro-Turkish. This reminds me of Grover Norquist who is also married to a Muslim woman. In the Bush II years he worked to get Muslims with Muslim Brotherhood connections into important positions in the US Government, many that were later arrested and jailed for connections to terrorist supporting networks. You will be surprised at the number of US VIPs that are on the Turkish, Saudi, and other Muslim payroll that are working to advance Muslim interests in the West, and Turkish and Azerbaijani interests against Armenia. Just a few of the names: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, Colin Powell, Jimmy Carter, Bush (I and II), Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan. It’s a very long list. Some in congress that express support for us will turn at the eleventh hour for Muslim money under the table. Some join the Armenian Caucus in order to squeeze money out of Turkey (remember Dennis Hastert?). How can they get Turkish money by being pro-Turkish? So they use us to get Turkish money! The West uses us, and will always use us until they no longer care and dump us. We need to use the West, but never believe in it.
Its that Bryza’s wife being Turkish should be troubling, its the fact that she is a lobbyist for Azerbaijan/Caspian energy institutions that is problematic. There is no way he could ever conceivably be considered an honest-broker. The efforts to block his ambassadorship has proven to be spot on and worth the effort. The State Department should be on notice.
meant to say: It’s NOT that Bryza’s wife being Turkish should be troubling, it’s the fact that she is a lobbyist for Azerbaijan/Caspian energy institutions that is problematic.
Is the city of Istanbul in Turkey…?
I did not know that
I thought it is in Constantinople…!
Is Aya sofia in Turkey…
The God should say Yes or No
I feel…It is sited in haven…
Doesn’t belong to any site…
Sylva
Arius,
We have always as a rule or out of sheer being honest ,sided with the GOOD GUY, so to say.Never with the Evil side.No,I do not condone a change of attitutde and or behaviour. Though I stand my ground that we should first of all think of our own HOUSE.In brief-not like before-hoping and praying that one or the other bestow something on us,exceptions granted during Acts of God and or Genocide victims care.Then the U.S.A, was the only one country that reached out and sent thousands of tons of flour to the starving Armenian orphans and the elderly…
This we shall not forget.But as rgds political lobbying for grants etc. that also in my bible is not an issue.This we have not been able perform effectively because.-
1.Our Gepographical position(contraary to what some think) is not that of Anatolia(read Western Armenia) or Azerbaijan(filthy poil rich).
2.We cannot as yet wish to be an important force in that area,like X had written in the AIM Magazine (and I responded, we can only become a balancing power) meaning, once say the powers to be consider and estimate that the combined Georgian ,Greek and X are capable of replacing an ailing great Turkey, that position be jointly placed on a more thrustworty ally as these latter trio , instead of Turkey that NEVER TRULY was faithfull.Only after bickerings and getting more for their services…etc.
3. What WE CAN AS YET MUSTER UP is what this servant of the Armenian people has been advocating for yrs at end…please enter and read my ..
articles in http://www.armeniannews.info
We can only then through our own National Investment Trust Fund do wonders ,yes including most importantly…REPATRIATION!!!!
Dear Mr. Sassounian,
You and I and most of us in here and elsewhere knew the extreme bias of Mathew Bryza. Why on earth the president of the free world disregarded the US Congress and sent Bryza as a high ranking State Dept. officer to Azerbaijan, we still would like to know. And why on earth he was appointed as an American co-chair as a mediator to the OSCE Minsk Group on the Karapakh (Artsakh) conflict? He is not to blame for it, but the blame goes to the people who have appointed him in the first place, because they are the ones who have acted immorally and unetically.