Armenian lobby in the United States

The Armenian American lobby is the coalition of groups and individuals who influence United States foreign policy in support of Armenia and its policies. Zbigniew Brzezinski ranks the three most effective ethnic lobbies in the United States as the Israeli American Lobby, the Greek American lobby and the Armenian American lobby.[1]

Strength

The Armenian lobby is almost exclusively formed by domestic organizations such as the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly of America, leaving the Armenian Government largely out of the lobbying process. The two organizations have similar lobbying goals, mostly revolving around improving U.S. relations with Armenia in terms of aid, blocking aid to Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as their ultimate goal of Armenian Genocide recognition. However, the two groups provide different approaches to promoting the Armenian cause. The ANCA focuses mostly on grassroots initiatives to mobilize a highly concentrated Armenian electorate. On the other hand, the AAA focuses on retaining large donations from influential Armenians in America.[2] The AAA draws upon the AIPAC model, which is very much centered on influencing foreign policy.[3] The competition between these two groups creates a “hyper-mobilization” of resources in the Armenian community, because the two organizations also have similar goals.[4]

The strength of the Armenian lobby can be derived from its concentration in a few congressional districts, such as California's 28th congressional district.[5] In the 2000 census, one-third of the Armenian-American community lived in just 5 districts of the 106th Congress. Half of all Armenian-Americans lived in just 20 congressional district.[6] This high population concentration allows the Armenian-Community to greatly sway votes, especially in a time of low voter turn out. One case study of this is when Democratic challenger and current Congressman Adam Schiff won against Republican incumbent Jim Rogan. Schiff effectively captured much of the Armenian vote, and now current champions Armenian issues in Congress. The Armenian community can also draw on its power of partial assimilation—it is not too assimilated like ethnic groups such as German Americans but it has had a presence in the U.S. since the early 1900s [7]

Success

The lobby is credited with considerable success in persuading Congress to favor Armenian interests. Among its achievements are $90 million in aid annually for Armenia, the continuation of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act blocking aid to Azerbaijan, success in stalling an arms deal with Turkey during the 1970s, and support for official US governmental recognition (in most US states) of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1921. Although federal genocide recognition is limited, 42 U.S. states recognize the genocide.[4] Armenian receives the second highest U.S. aid per capita behind Israel, and noticeably higher than comparable countries such as Georgia.[8]

While the Armenian lobby has been effective in a number of public relations campaigns, it has been—after more than 25 years of effort—a failure regarding their primary goal, the recognition of the Genocide of Armenians by the United States government. No matter identity of the president or the ruling political party, the Armenian lobbyists have been unable to change United States policy regarding Genocide recognition.[9]

The Armenian lobby recently has been subdued by the Turkish and Azerbaijani lobbies. In contrast to the Armenian lobby, the Turkish lobby mostly runs through its government. A study on ethnic lobbies and their effect on U.S. foreign policy indicated that the Turkish embassy is more active than Turkish-American organizations in attempting to influence U.S. regional foreign policy.[10] Because the Republic of Turkey cannot legally finance campaigns, it relies on contracting Washington lobbying firms and contacting members of congress and their staff. In 2008, the Turkish government spent $3,524,632 on Washington lobbying activities and contacted members of Congress 2,268 times. Utilizing top lobbying firms such as the Livingston Group, which has represented other Middle Eastern clients such as Egypt and Libya, the Turkish government gained invaluable Washington resources.[11]

Lobby organizations

References

  1. ↑ Brzezinski, Zbigniew. "A Dangerous Exemption." Foreign Policy 1 July 2006: 63.
  2. ↑ Bakalian, Anny P. Armenian-Americans: From Being to Feeling Armenian. New Brunswick (U.S.A.): Transaction, 1993. Print.
  3. ↑ Paul, David (2009). Ethnic Lobbies & U.S. Foreign Policy.
  4. 1 2 Gregg, Heather. "Divided They Conquer: The Success of Armenian Ethnic Lobbies in the United States" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton Boston & Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Aug 28, 2002
  5. ↑ Doherty 1996b; Wallsten 2000; Walt 2005
  6. ↑ Paul, David (2009). Ethnic Lobbies & U.S. Foreign Policy. pp. 109–110.
  7. ↑ Paul, David (2009). Ethnic Lobbies & U.S. Foreign Policy. p. 126.
  8. ↑ Paul, David (2009). Ethnic Lobbies & U.S. Foreign Policy. p. 144.
  9. ↑ Dikran Abrahamian."US Armenian Lobby's Clout an Exaggeration". Official site. Archived from the original on 3 December 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
  10. ↑ Paul, David (2009). Ethnic Lobbies & U.S. Foreign Policy. p. 53.
  11. ↑ Narayanswamy, Anupama, Luke Rosiak, and Jennifer LaFleur. "Adding It Up: The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying." ProPublica. ProPublica.org, 18 Aug. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
  12. ↑ http://www.anca.org/
  13. ↑ "About Us". Official site. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
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