Tennessee Panel Rejects Pro-Azerbaijan Measure

Great respect and admiration for the incredible work done by ANCA-ER and ANCA-WR. The rejection of four states of pro-Azerbaijan measures is a remarkable accomplishment by the ANCA , when we take into consideration that:
a- The four states have a small number of Armenians, and the activists who were involved overcame huge hurdles.
b- The pro Azeri lobbies and forces spent huge sums of money to have the measures pass.
Undoubtedly, the Azeri government and its agents will try to pass the same measure in other states. I am hopeful that the ANCA, with the support of all Armenian-Americans, and the moral integrity of the members of the house of representatives in those states, will be able to defeat the measures.
Vart Adjemian

Every legislator in the US ought to get the various reports on how Azerbaijan brought terrorist mercenaries into the Artsakh war, how the bombings of the US embassies was planned through phone calls via Baku, and how Azeris have joined up with terrorist organizations in Syria. That is the minimum that should be done.

I am not sure that southern US states care very much about human rights in Azerbaijan, and they probably like the fact that Azerbaijan has gas and oil. But I am sure that conservatives care when they learn about Azeri support of anti-US terror organizations.

We Armenians may be too “nice” to do this sort of campaign, however. Some of us don’t want to hurt the feelings of Azeris because they’re human.

{“ Great respect and admiration for the incredible work done by ANCA-ER and ANCA-WR.”}
(vart adjemian // March 26, 2014 at 8:28 am // )

Very well said, Vart: indeed ANCA deserves huge kudos.

Most people do not realize how small ANCA’s paid staff is: including execs and part-time paid staff, it’s less than a dozen people or so, nationwide.
And the leadership works their tails off: it is not a 9-5 job.
ANCA is effective, because it is a grass-roots organization.
A lot of its grunt work is done by young volunteers and interns.

And of course the participation of Armenian-American voters, as Vart noted.
Having myself corresponded our concerns on many an occasion to our Congressional reps (email, snailmail, phone call), one thing is for sure: they do not like angering their voter base.
Politicians fear one thing worse than death, and that is being voted out.
It is very important to let them know we are out here: their behaviour may not change immediately, but they register the voter discontent and remember it: it will have an effect.

It may not appear as such, but these efforts by ANCA are part of the concentric layers of defense of RoA and NKR.
These Turkophile Anti-RoA and Anti-NKR legislations are like cancer: if they are not treated and eradicated, they will cause serious damage to RoA and NKR down the line.
ANCA certainly recognizes what Turkbaijanis are up to and what their long term purpose is with these types of legislations. But many ordinary Armenian-Americans may not realize how dangerous these things are: they may look innocuous in their present form, but if allowed to remain and grow roots, they establish a precedent for far worse Anti-Armenian legislation to build on: thus, they represent an unacceptable risk to RoA and NKR.

As ANCA already recognizes, there should be a zero-tolerance policy from all Armenian-Americans vis-à-vis these types of legislations.

btw: Tennessee is the home state of Rep Steven Cohen, a rabid, Turkophile Anti-Armenian AG denialist.