ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian’s Remarks at the U.S. Senate Centennial Celebration of U.S.-Armenia Friendship

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian served as MC for the evening, offering brief remarks on the dawning of a second century of U.S.-Armenia relations “based on shared values, interests, aspirations, and sacrifices” (Photo: Lillit Bazikyan)

Below are remarks delivered by Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian at the June 26 reception celebrating the centennial of the Republic of Armenia and a century of the Republic’s relations with the U.S.

The event, which is organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) of the Eastern U.S. and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy of Armenia, was headlined by Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian and held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building of the U.S. Senate. Hamparian served as Master of Ceremonies for the evening, offering brief remarks (below) on the dawning of a second century of U.S.-Armenia relations “based on shared values, interests, aspirations, and sacrifices.”

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Our U.S.-Armenia partnership is marked by shared values, interests, aspirations, and sacrifices.

Shared values:

We saw this in Armenia’s remarkable, peaceful and constitutional political transition.

A powerful display of democracy that has opened a new chapter in our longstanding bilateral friendship.

We see these values reflected, as well, in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s remarkable “Armenia: Creating Home” program, which the ANCA Endowment is proud to sponsor.

Shared interests:

No nation has been more committed than the United States to Armenian liberty.

Dating back to U.S. recognition and relief efforts for the First Armenian Republic,
America’s support for Armenian independence through the long years of the Cold War.
Our generous support and constructive engagement during these first decades of Armenia’s reborn independence.

We’re working to deepen our cooperation, with:

A Tax Treaty promoting trade and investment.
An MCC STEAM grant transforming Armenia into a Silicon Valley of the Caucasus.

Shared aspirations:

We believe in regional peace and share a commitment to strengthening the ceasefire – through:

The bipartisan Royce-Engel proposals.
The U.S. aid program to Artsakh, and other investments in peace.

Together, we can create the conditions for a peaceful, durable, and democratic resolution of status and security issues between Azerbaijan and Artsakh.

And, finally, shared sacrifices:

Armenia—among the world’s highest per-capita providers of peacekeepers—has sent soldiers to serve alongside Americans in U.S.-led deployments from Afghanistan and Iraq to Lebanon, Kosovo, and Mali.

In all these ways, we mark today bonds of faith, freedom, and friendship and we look forward to our second century of U.S.-Armenia partnership.