By Stephan Pechdimaldji,
The 2024 presidential race is shaping up to be a person of our nation’s most hotly contested elections. With an voters that has develop into far more polarized than ever, independents and pick out demographic teams promise to enjoy a extra pivotal position in this year’s election. It is why Arab People in america in Michigan lifted a whole lot of eyebrows when they turned from Joe Biden in the state’s major, signaling their anger with the president’s dealing with of the Israel-Hamas war. But Arab Individuals are not the only group sensation betrayed by President Biden these times. Armenian Individuals are also deeply annoyed with President Biden and how he permitted Azerbaijan to ethnically cleanse extra than 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh very last year.
To entirely fully grasp why Armenian People sense let down by President Biden, one particular will have to analyze the increasing authoritarianism in Azerbaijan below President Ilham Aliyev and how Joe Biden has turned a blind eye to the petro-dictator’s tyrannical rule as a geopolitical trade-off. Considering that having electricity from his father nearly two a long time in the past, Aliyev has embarked on a marketing campaign to wipe Armenia off the map that began in the tumble of 2020 when he launched an illegal and unprovoked war in opposition to ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. The war was quickly followed by a just about 10-thirty day period blockade of the only street linking Armenians in the location to the outdoors environment that culminated very last September when Azerbaijan forced Armenians to depart their residences, upending a civilization that stood for a thousand a long time right away.
As a candidate working for president in 2020, Joe Biden vowed to maintain Azerbaijan accountable for its actions towards Armenia and rightly criticized the Trump administration for coddling Turkey in its attempts to help and support Azerbaijan. For Armenian People, that variation of Joe Biden was consistent with his document as a U.S. senator who for several years fought for Armenian American issues together with the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Biden was a reputable pal to our local community, which explains why Armenian Individuals overwhelmingly supported his campaign for president in 2020.
That is why Armenian Individuals had been so enthusiastic when President Biden formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, one thing no other president had completed considering the fact that President Reagan, by satisfying his marketing campaign guarantee to hold Turkey responsible for the first genocide of the 20th century.
It was a watershed instant for Armenian People as politicians from both political events had used the Armenian Genocide for political applications. Seeking for votes and funds, President George W. Bush and Barack Obama the two promised to identify the Armenian Genocide as candidates but then bowed to Turkish strain once in office environment.
Armenian People thought that the Armenian Genocide was no for a longer time a political football for both equally parties to kick all around. Political expediency ultimately took a backseat to frequent perception and truth.
So, though we welcomed this historic and lengthy overdue assertion, the spirit of its intent was limited-lived as Biden designed a fateful conclusion ahead of the ink was even dry.
Times right after recognizing the Armenian Genocide, he waived Segment 907 of the Liberty Aid Act that bans international assist to Azerbaijan, which was a harbinger of matters to arrive. With a stroke of his pen, Biden primarily recognized a genocide, only to allow yet another a person to continue on.
Considering the fact that then, Joe Biden has arguably been the most anti-Armenian president to occupy the Oval Business. He has refused to maintain Azerbaijan accountable for its war crimes or enforce any sanctions versus its leadership. His administration did absolutely nothing to assist Armenians through the blockade whilst they starved and blocked innumerable United Nations initiatives to condemn Azerbaijan or aid resolutions that would enable the protected return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh.
And his silence on Armenian political prisoners like the humanitarian Ruben Vardanyan, who at the moment sits in Azeri jails, has been deafening.
Biden’s failure and deficiency of leadership on challenges that are important to Armenian Americans have arrive to a head. It is 1 of the good reasons why neighborhood and coalition leaders from organizations like the Armenian National Committee of The us (ANCA) have urged Armenian Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in their main elections as a protest vote towards Joe Biden’s complicity in Azerbaijan’s genocidal campaign.
With additional than 200,000 Armenian People across Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, this smaller but strong team has the likely to idea the outcome of a race that could come down to slim margins in these battleground states.
But it’s not too late for President Biden. With very little significantly less than nine months till election working day, Biden has an opportunity to use his remaining time in office environment to established the file straight on Azerbaijan. He can start out by holding Azerbaijan dependable for its war crimes, levying sanctions where by ideal, and directing the United States Agency for International Growth to distribute additional aid and aid to Armenian refugees. He needs to end emboldening Azerbaijan although he’s even now in a situation of electrical power and be extra vocal about these significant concerns on the campaign trail.
President Biden has missing the have faith in of Armenian Individuals. If he wants to generate our vote back, he has a ton of get the job done left to do. Time is jogging out.
Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Space. He is a very first-era Armenian American and the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide.
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