Do Armenians want it both ways?

[Mediocrates]

They can't demand that Jews stand for them against Genocide and then welcome the President of Iran.

Link Here

AJC Condemns Armenian University for Honoring Iranian President

From news article:

October 24, 2007 – New York – The American Jewish Committee fully supports the position of the Armenian Jewish community in condemning Yerevan State University for honoring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Earlier this week, the university presented the Iranian leader with an honorary doctorate and a gold medal.

“It is simply astonishing that a university, where the search for truth and peaceful coexistence ought to be cherished ideals, would honor the head of a country who is a leading denier of the Holocaust and calls for the elimination of a UN member state, Israel,” said AJC Executive Director David A. Harris.

“Moreover, as president of Iran, Ahmadinejad has trampled on the rights of many Iranian citizens, including students on university campuses who have protested his, in their words, dictatorial and suffocating leadership,” said Harris. “Many of those students have been imprisoned and reportedly tortured.”

“Yerevan State University should have honored the students and not those who clamp down on their right to speak out and protest,” Harris said.

[bararallu]

Armenia != all Armenians.

Most Armenians in the United states are "west Armenian", from Syria, and Lebanon, and Turkey. The East Armenians run their own foreign policy, having their own state. The western Armenians run NGOs and act like a diaspora typically acts, sometimes with convergent and sometimes divergent agenda to Armenia, the state. The latter has not demanded anything from Turkey, in terms of historic reconciliation, AFAIK. That said, if questioned about Iran, the East Armenians will say how come Israel has good relations with Azerbaijan, and an is a long time ally of Turkey, which it claims supported the Azeris during the war in N-Karabach. They will also mention Israels former alliance with Iran, pre Mullah. Finally, most of them are not happy with the mullahs either.

So at the end of the day, geo-politics is geo-politics, = realpolitik, and doesn't have to come between people unless the leadership steers the nation into a confrontation.

[farmall]

Good post. Too bad Nancy Pelosi didn't know that.

[Yala]

Armenia != all Armenians.

It doesn't matter. Let's hear these American Armenians condemn the Armenian university loud and clear for honoring that loser....Just like we are not all Israelis, but as Jews, we are somewhat "represented" by the State of Israel. That's life.

[Cellis]

[I]They can't demand that Jews stand for them against Genocide and then welcome the President of Iran.

so what? He was in New York too... =)) heh heh

[bararallu]

It doesn't matter. Let's hear these American Armenians condemn the Armenian university loud and clear for honoring that loser....Just like we are not all Israelis, but as Jews, we are somewhat "represented" by the State of Israel. That's life.

Serdar's point is very relevant. How many Jews protested the Iranian Holocaust denier when he was in NY? How many Jews are there in NY? We should not expect of others, what we cant expect of ourselves.

[Mediocrates]

Serdar's point is very relevant. How many Jews protested the Iranian Holocaust denier when he was in NY? How many Jews are there in NY? We should not expect of others, what we cant expect of ourselves.

You were there. The Kippah crowd was there. I'm sitting here listening the Pelosi's (and Lantos for god's sake, he's a Shoah survivor himself) welcoming the efforts of the Armenians to declare a holocaust of their own and their fine liberal counterparts in Yerevan are welcoming the same crazy idiots who want to kill them all.

The older I get the more I just want let every moron kill each other and play polo with their heads.

[Yala]

Serdar's point is very relevant. How many Jews protested the Iranian Holocaust denier when he was in NY? How many Jews are there in NY? We should not expect of others, what we cant expect of ourselves.

But my point is we are not asking the Armenians for anything. It is they who are lobbying Jewish congressmen and senators, threatening the ridiculous ADL, asking Israeli knesset members to pen a bill about the genocide. They are asking Israel to risk their security and make trouble with their biggest ally in the region, Turkey. They are asking the same of the US. I am asking why??? They won't even comdemn this Ahmedinijad stuff. Why are they not (instead) lobbying ARMENIA to deal with the genocide issue??? US and Israel, for now, must remain neutral. That is my position.

[bararallu]

Thats a fine position of course and it makes sense. What cuts through the chaff though, is that the state of Armenia currently has diplomatic relations with Israel. Unlike Russia and China (some of Israels bigger trading partners outside of Europe and the US) which actively supply strategic weaponry to Iran, and nuclear technology, and cover it in the SC, and at least Russia is also contributing to the general agitation of the region, and Israel specifically; the State of Armenia has no such 1. Ability and thus far 2. interest.

Furthermore, we Jews are not protesting any of these countries anywhere, Israel has relations with them. Nor, as I mentioned above, do most Jews take up the protests even if the president of Iran is in their back yard giving speeches about future Holocausts and denying the one that happened. But you see where I'm going.... Just because *some* people, a number of Armenians in Israel and the US, feel compelled to redress a historic issue involving us for their reasons, it does not mean the State of Armenia has any issue with Israel, or vice versa, but it merely maintains it's own geo- political agenda. What ever it's foreign policy is, one must note that Armenia is not on friendly terms with any states surrounding it (including Christian Georgia, for a variety of reasons), and it is land locked. We have our friends in the ME and our friends are not their friends. If Iran was not Mullah land then we may share a friend in the general region, as is we do not.

[Cellis]

I am asking why???

because armo has $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[bararallu]

because armo has $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

No. Because Iran flanks Azerbaijan, to be concise.

[Mil]

Armenia and Iran are neighbors. Who cares.

[bararallu]

Armenia and Iran are neighbors. Who cares.

You don't think it's a bit more complicated than that? The Russians are the ones pushing buttons over there. They are worried about US influence in Georgia, and Turkish/US interests in Azerbaijan... A good deal of Caspian oil is bypassing both Iran and Russia. Armenia, is neither fish nor foul in this arrangement. Save for it's position vis-a-vis the Azeris. It has a western diaspora (mostly US and French), and pro western population for the most part, yet their national politics are in line with primarily Russian (rather than Iranian) interests. Odd, but there is no logic in geo-politics.

[Mil]

They'll figure it out. As far as Jews and Armenians are concerned when working together we make quite good results.... like Gasparov.

[bararallu]

LOL, I think Gasparov's parents did more than "work" to make him.