WASHINGTON—The Armenian American community’s electoral response to President Biden’s complicity in Azerbaijan’s genocide of Artsakh’s indigenous Armenians was spotlighted this week in international news coverage of the Michigan Armenian “uncommitted” vote in the Democratic presidential primary, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Articles in POLITICO, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, BBC, and Reason Magazine showcased ANC of Michigan efforts in support of the “uncommitted” movement, which garnered over 100,000 votes in Tuesday’s election.
POLITICO was the first to report that the “uncommitted” campaign enjoyed broad support in the Armenian American community. “Dzovinar Hatsakordzian — a national board member of the Armenian National Committee of America — is urging Armenian Democrats in Michigan to vote ‘Uncommitted’ because he ‘armed Azerbaijan’s genocide of Artsakh’s indigenous Armenians.’ The ANCA has circulated graphics that read ‘Michigan’s Armenian voters will remember this November that Biden armed Azerbaijan and abandoned Armenians to genocidal killers.’”
Also citing Hatsakordzian’s op-ed in The Armenian Weekly, the New York Times reported, “A group of Armenian Americans is also urging an “uncommitted” vote to protest treatment of ethnic Armenians living in Azerbaijan.”
The BBC reported on the “failure of the Biden administration to address the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region,” as the reason for the record number of Michigan Armenian ‘uncommitted’ votes.
“The response has been overwhelming,” Hatsakordzian told the Washington Post, which noted that the ANCA “estimates that Michigan is home to about 72,000 Armenian Americans, including their family members and others close to the community. Hatsakordzian estimated that she had heard from at least 50 people who voted “uncommitted” to protest Biden’s support for Azerbaijan.”
ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian told USA Today, “We really feel like he broke faith with our community. Our thought is that type of complicity should have consequences.”
During interviews with Reason Magazine, Hamparian explained, “Everyone who voted ‘uncommitted’ went to the polls trying to bring accountability to our foreign policy system, and that’s a good thing. Exercises like this remind [politicians] that foreign policy doesn’t start and end at the State Department. It’s the property of the American people.” Hatsakordzian told Reason Magazine she does not currently plan to vote for Biden, and that in order to win back her vote, “he can sanction Azerbaijan, he can stop sending weapons to Azerbaijan and take concrete actions to stop the genocide that is going on.”
POLITICO’s deep dive into California’s hotly contested congressional race to fill Rep. Adam Schiff’s seat in Southern California spotlighted how the community’s frustration with President Biden’s failed Artsakh policy is playing a pivotal role there. ANCA Programs Director Alex Galitsky told POLITICO, “Our community expects candidates to not only forcefully condemn Azerbaijan’s actions, but hold the Biden administration to task for its ongoing refusal to impose consequences on Azerbaijan for its genocidal aggression against the Armenians of Artsakh.”
In January of this year, the ANCA launched the “Armenian American Swing State Project,” mobilizing voters of Armenian heritage in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for the 2024 election. ANCA demographic research shows that the number of Armenian voters in these states is sufficient to decide or impact outcomes, particularly in a hotly-contested, three-way race.
Latest posts by ANCA (see all)
- U.S. government watchdog group adds Azerbaijan to list of world’s worst religious freedom abusers - May 2, 2024
- 66 U.S. representatives urge congressional appropriators to allocate $200 million for Artsakh genocide victims - May 1, 2024
- Titus and Bilirakis lead bipartisan bill to sanction Azerbaijani war criminals - April 29, 2024
Biden, although he is the first U.S. President to recognize the Armenian Genocide (likely for the potential Armenian votes, rather than out of principle), has been a huge disappointment, when it came to the cruel starvation blockade of Artsakh and later the destruction of Artsakh and the ethnic cleansing of all Armenians by Azerbaijan. He did not condemn it, let alone take any action. It looks like Trump could win the presidential elections, but he is even more indifferent to the plight of Armenians. He did not condemn Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh during the Second Artsakh War back in 2020, let alone take any action. I bet he doesn’t know where Armenia is located or heard of Artsakh until 2020. Politicians only think of the potential ethnic votes during elections, when they pledge something but don’t follow through with their promises.
The “uncommitted” vote (or “no preference” vote in Massachusetts) is also a protest vote against Biden for contributing to the genocide in Gaza, so many of those 100,000 voters in Michigan were Arab-American. It would have been more honest to mention this. Also, where are the Armenian voices protesting against Israel’s GENOCIDE in Gaza? I can’t hear you!
Where are the Arab, including the Palestinian, voices on the acknowledgement and recognition of the Armenian Genocide by their fellow Muslim Turkish criminals? The last I heard the Palestinian leaders, i.e. Hamas, were welcomed into the terrorist Turkish parliament with a hero’s welcome by the Islamo-fascist Turkish terrorist-in-chief and genocide denier Erdogan himself!
We should stand against all atrocities regardless but given their silence on atrocities committed against the Armenians, recent and past, by their fellow Muslim Turkish and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani terrorists, not to mention Northern Syrian ISIS terrorists recruited by Erdogan and paid for by Azerbaijani petrodollars, I say we have no business interfering in this conflict and what we should do instead is to expose morally-bankrupt Israel’s hypocrisy arming our enemies with sophisticated and state-of-the-art weaponry to commit yet another genocide against our populations while preaching to the world about and against genocide! That’s what we should really be doing.
The Levant attracts far more global attention than the Caucasus, that’s just the way it is. True that the Gaza situation will get far more attention from Arab Americans than the inaction of the USA in the part of the world it has little interest in namely the Caucasus region. As for Armenians not speaking out much about Gaza etc that’s insularity which is probably why few non Armenians speak up for Armenia. In turn anti Armenian sentiments aren’t universal unlike anti Semitism as Armenians aren’t considered interfering due to their insular inclinations.
Sosi:
Uncommitted is a ridiculous term.
Biden has been continually anti Armenian with no response to all threats we have faced.
That behavior deserves a plain “no” vote rather than on the fence “uncommitted”– uncommitted implies waiting for a sound bite (words not deeds) we like to hear.
Biden tossed a tease by saying “genocide (we swooned) and then routinely ignored anti-Armenian actions…and we are just now talking breaking faith with the community ?
Good mention on the actual make up of the 100k voters in Mich… a bit of puffery.
I wish there was a way to indicate what issue(s) led to the “undecided”; how is anyone supposed to know why? For me, it’s the surging migrant crisis, the ridiculously soft on crimes / drugs stance, transgender nonsense, and his overall age and obviously addled general state of being. I *hate* Trump with a deep and fiery passion for his sexual assaults / cheating / not paying contractors / bankruptcies, and his hatred of gold star military families, and general un-earned bravado (and many more!) with nothing behind it. I cannot believe it’s Biden vs. Trump AGAIN. Pathetic (being polite).
Yet Armenians continue to vote for people like him.