By Yusif Babanli, Member of Board of Directors of Azerbaijani American Council; Co-founder of U.S. Azeris Network.
“Off to a bad start”, says Garen Yegparian, a self-proclaimed enforcer of Armenian issues, referring to December appointments of Matthew Bryza and Francis Riccardone US ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Turkey and the unsuccessful fate of House Resolution 252 in his article in Asbarez online edition [http://asbarez.com/91420/off-to-a-bad-start/ ].
But what “bad start” is Mr. Yegparian is actually talking about?
As long as bilateral US-Azerbaijan and US-Turkey relations existed, US ambassadors have always been carefully reviewed and appointed to represent national interests of the United States. That’s right, the national interests of the United States, not those of Republic of Armenia or of Armenian Diaspora. Although Mr. Yegparian would certainly like an American envoy to represent the Armenian interests by recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide, facilitating the process of transfer of financial aid and its increase to Armenia and separatist regime in Khankendi at the expense of US taxpayers, ignoring such facts as the theft of $163 million from Medicaid by Armenian American criminal group and illegal transfer of weapons purchased by Republic of Armenia, to Iran, which ended up at the hands of Shiite insurgents in Iraq and eventually caused American casualties, the realities dictate otherwise.
In general, the US administrations should not follow any interests of any country, not Armenia, not Azerbaijan, not Turkey. It is sufficient for the US to stick to its own strategic national interests, which, in case of appointment of Bryza and Riccardone, it does.
Having finished with “unwelcomed” ambassadors, Mr Yegparian continues with his comments on the interview with Javid Huseynov, the Director of the Azerbaijani American Council who spoke of an increasing cooperation among Turkic groups. Carefully separating the Turkic groups, he underscores that he “doesn’t believe that people from the central Asian Turkic countries will be in on this to any great extent”.
How so? Increasing cooperation among Turkic groups signifies growing intercultural ties among these nations and their joint recognition of their common Turkic heritage suppressed by Soviet authorities for 70 years. Apart from that, Mr Yegparian should also note that neither people living in Central Asian Turkic states, nor those in Azerbaijan and Turkey are “Armenian-haters” and might never be. As ironic as it may seem, all these Turkic states have considerable Armenian minorities, including Turkey and Azerbaijan unlike the Republic of Armenia which has no Turkish or Azerbaijani population whatsoever which is a significant indicator as to where the haters he’s concerned of manby hail from.
Moreover, Mr. Yegparian forgets that the reason the Turkic Central Asian states refrained from explicitly condemning Armenia on many issues is because they don’t have a common border with it. Otherwise, a piece of each of those states would have been claimed by Armenia. Eastern Turkey, western Azerbaijan and southern Georgia are good examples of irredentist claims by Armenian nationalists. However, seeing Mr Yegparian call the Orange County (CA) a “plague of locusts”, it’s not surprising to see any other comment from Garen Yegparian.
Add to the list of concerns by Mr Yegparian what he calls the “Kobe Bryant fiasco”. Asking an athlete to annul the contract with Turkish Airlines because he does not recognize the Armenian version of events in 1915 is like asking American businessmen to refrain from investing in Armenia just because a group of Armenians stole $163 million of US taxpayer contributions to Medicaid. Would that make any sense?
Lastly, Mr Yegparian speaks of the Wikileaks which have been “VERY informative about our enemies”.
Very informative about our enemies? Who exactly does Mr Yegparian consider enemies? The President of Republic of Armenia, Serzh Sarkissian? Armenian Ministry of Defense? Because last I heard, it was Armenia transferring weapons to Iran against US sanctions and at the expense of the very financial aid it receives from American taxpayers every year. For someone like Mr. Yegparian, who ran for Burbank City Council, a US government institution funded by US taxpayers, the issue should be a major concern.
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