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Amid US Budget Cuts, How Much Will Be Left For Armenia And Azerbaija

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  • Amid US Budget Cuts, How Much Will Be Left For Armenia And Azerbaija

    AMID US BUDGET CUTS, HOW MUCH WILL BE LEFT FOR ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN?
    Giorgi Lomsadze

    EurasiaNet.org
    Aug 3, 2011

    Now that the US debt ceiling drama has ended, can Washington start
    mulling the truly pressing economic question; i.e. how much money
    to dish out in aid to the Caucasus' legendary foes, Armenia and
    Azerbaijan?

    Colossal foreign debt may be encouraging congressional parsimony, but
    one big Armenian Diaspora lobbyist, the Armenian National Committee
    of America (ANCA), still hopes to cut as large a slice as possible
    for Armenia from a trimmed-down 2012 foreign aid package. The ANCA
    recently called on Armenian-Americans to lobby for approval of $60
    million in economic aid instead of the recently approved $40 million
    and for "at least" $10 million in military assistance.

    Rival Azerbaijan should get nada in economic aid, the organization
    argued, because, first off, it is rich anyway, spoilt by hydrocarbon
    wealth, and, secondly, because it (allegedly) threatens Armenia and
    the Armenia-dependent breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

    Azerbaijan, for its part, does not often display the Diaspora lobbying
    muscle which its rival enjoys (Azerbaijan's strategic location and
    energy resources tend to be active lobbyists by themselves), but it
    has praised a congressional panel for not including Nagorno Karabakh
    among the recipients of American foreign aid for the prospective 2012
    foreign aid bill.

    Both countries, however, have been more than equally matched in their
    latest assessments of each other. Commenting on Armenian President
    Serzh Sargsyan's recent controversial statement about the prospects
    for reclaiming Mount Ararat from Turkey, Azerbaijani President Ilham
    Aliyev noted that something may be missing in the Armenian leader's
    brain. Sargsyan retorted promptly that Aliyev's words were the words
    of a madman.

    US foreign aid for both Azerbaijan and Armenia comes with conditions
    attached; maybe it's time to make a presidential anger management
    course one of them?


    From: Baghdasarian
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