USA-Armenia relations

[Haykakan]

Re: USA-Armenia relations

OBAMA BUDGET CALLS FOR RECORD LOW LEVEL OF AID TO ARMENIA

10:45, 03 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Obama-Biden Administration budget released today calls for a yet
another reduction in U.S. economic assistance to both Armenia and
Azerbaijan, while maintaining parity in military aid to these two
countries, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The President's proposal of $18,360,000 in Economic Support Funds
for Armenia in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 would, if approved by Congress,
represent a record low in such aid since Armenia's independence. The
White House's proposal for Armenia is over $2 million less than FY
2014's actual economic aid allocation, and less than half of the $40
million requested in a Congressional Armenian Caucus letter and ANCA
Congressional testimony submitted last year.

"The White House must match its relentless reductions in aid to
Armenia with an equally energetic effort to substantially increase
bilateral trade and investment between our two nations," stated ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "It's not too late for President
Obama, who came into office promising to grow U.S.-Armenia economic
relations, to negotiate a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement,
put in place a badly-needed new Tax Treaty, and organize targeted
trade missions promoting cooperation in IT, health care, education,
tourism and other key sectors of Armenia's economy."

The White House's proposal did, however, maintain parity in terms of
appropriated military aid, with International Military Education and
Training (IMET) assistance set at $600,000 and Foreign Military Finance
(FMF) at $1,700,000. "While we remain deeply troubled that the Obama
Administration - in the wake yet another wave of fatal cross-border
Azerbaijani aggression - would propose any military aid at all to
Ilham Aliyev's armed forces, we do appreciate that, in this context,
the principle of military aid parity has been maintained to both
Armenia and Azerbaijan," added Hamparian.

The Administration's budget does not include any figures for aid to
Nagorno Karabakh, although, over the past several years USAID has
allocated $2,000,000 annually for this purpose.

In the coming months, the ANCA will be working with the Congressional
Armenian Caucus and Senate and House Appropriators to increase
assistance to Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh and zero-out all military
assistance to Azerbaijan. "We urge Congress, during their consideration
of the foreign aid bill, to increase aid to Armenia and Artsakh,
cut all military aid to Azerbaijan, and support our other foreign
aid policy priorities," noted Hamparian.

Economic Support FundForeign Military FinancingInt'l
Military Education & TrainingInt'l Narcotics Control & Law
Enforcement Armenia$18,360,000$1,700,000$600,000$1,700,000
Azerbaijan$7,978,000$1,700,000$600,000$800,000 Georgia:$50,552,000$
0$2,200,000$3,500,000

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/02/03/obama-budget-calls-for-record-low-level-of-aid-to-armenia/

[Haykakan]

Re: USA-Armenia relations

STARBUCKS ENRAGES U.S. ARMENIAN COMMUNITY WITH PR MISFIRE

Social media users claim to have seen the poster depicting women
dressed in traditional Armenian garb under the crescent and star of
the Turkish flag in several Starbucks locations in Los Angeles County,
which is home to a large number of people with full or partial Armenian
ancestry. (file photo)

By Carl Schreck

February 19, 2015

WASHINGTON -- An attempt by U.S. coffee giant Starbucks to appeal
to Los Angeles' sizable Armenian population has backfired after its
coffee shops displayed posters depicting women dressed in traditional
Armenian garb under the crescent and star of the Turkish flag.

The posters were spotted this week in Los Angeles-area Starbucks
locations, infuriating activists and social media users who called the
image offensive in light of what Armenians refer to as the "genocide"
of their people by Turkish Ottoman forces in the early 20th century.

"Why is Starbucks selling coffee using an image of women, dressed
in traditional Armenian costumes, celebrating a Turkish state that
systematically victimized Armenian women during the Armenian Genocide,
and that still denies this crime against all humanity?" the Armenian
National Committee Of America (ANCA) wrote in a February 18 post on
its Facebook page.

Profile ANCA Community Organization · 59,582 Likes · Yesterday at
11:59am ·

â~@ª#â~@~NSTARBUCKSâ~@¬ APOLOGIZES; PULLS OFFENSIVE POSTERS: In
response to an online onslaught of concern regarding its posters
depicting women in Armenian dance costumes with under Turkish Crescent
and Stars, #Starbucks has issued an apology and is removing the
offensive ads. In a statement issued to Asbarez News, and posted
to the ANCA Facebook Page, #Starbucks officials noted: "Thank you
to all who raised this concern to us today. Serving as a place for
the community to connect is core to our business and we strive to be
locally relevant in all of our stores. We missed the mark here and
we apologize for upsetting our customers and the community.

We have removed this art in our Mulholland & Calabasas store in
Woodland Hills and are working to make this right."

Is the offensive poster in your local Starbucks? Call Starbucks
Customer Service 800.792.7282 to advise them - and post the location
to the ANCA Facebook Page.

Social media users claimed to have seen the poster in several Starbucks
locations in Los Angeles County, which is home to 446,000 people with
full or partial Armenian ancestry, according to 2007 U.S.

Census Bureau datacited by California-based scholar Shushan Karapetian.

As outrage swelled online and Starbucks customer service
representatives fielded angry calls, the company posted an apology
on the ANCA's Facebook page on February 18, promising to remove the
offending photographs.

"Serving as a place for the community to connect is core to our
business and we strive to be locally relevant in all of our stores,"
a Starbucks representative wrote in the post. "We missed the mark
here and we apologize for upsetting our customers and the community."

The representative added that the artwork would be removed from a
store in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills and that
Starbucks is "working to make this right."

It was not immediately clear exactly how many shops displayed the
photograph.

A Starbucks spokesperson told RFE/RL in a February 19 email that the
company is "quickly looking into this to ensure this image is not in
any other Starbucks locations."

'Flood Of Concern'

ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian said the group became aware of
the posters from social media users in California early in the morning
on February 18 and that his group believes they were displayed in at
least "two or three locations in Southern California."

"It became very clear very quickly that this was a very serious
issue for the entire community, because we started getting a flood
of concern," Hamparian told RFE/RL, adding that Starbucks responded
"very appropriately."

The photograph, in which one of the women dressed in Armenian garb
is holding a paper Starbucks cup while red balloons embossed with the
Turkish star and crescent float overhead, appears to have originated
with California-based designer Tim Rose.

Rose, who has worked on campaigns for Starbucks and other
multinationals, including Coca-Cola and Nike, featured the photograph
on his website as recently as January 28, according to a cached
version of the site.

The image has since been removed from the website. Rose did not
respond to an emailed request for comment.

Preparations are underway worldwide for this year's commemoration of
the 100th anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman
rule. The tragedy has been recognized as "genocide" by more than 20
countries, including Canada, Russia, and France.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on February 16 recalled from
parliament protocols on normalizing ties and establishing diplomatic
relations with Turkey, accusing Ankara of lacking "political will"
and thwarting the process with "preconditions."

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian Service

http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia-starbucks-genocide-pr-misfire/26858687.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYtNFW8NkU&feature=player_detailpage#t=540

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[Haykakan]

Re: USA-Armenia relations

U.S. expert: Washington sent Nuland to Armenia to organize coup there

March 21, 2015 - 12:11 AMT


PanARMENIAN.Net - While Washington works assiduously to undermine the
Minsk agreement that German chancellor Merkel and French president
Hollande achieved in order to halt the military conflict in Ukraine,
Washington has sent Victoria Nuland to Armenia to organize a "color
revolution" or coup there, has sent Richard Miles as ambassador to
Kyrgyzstan to do the same there, and has sent Pamela Spratlen as
ambassador to Uzbekistan to purchase that government's allegiance away
from Russia. The result would be to break up the Collective Security
Treaty Organization and present Russia and China with destabilization
where they can least afford it, Paul Craig Roberts says in a piece
titled "Russia Under Attack" published on his website.

Thus, Russia faces the renewal of conflict in Ukraine simultaneously
with three more Ukraine-type situations along its Asian border. And
this is only the beginning of the pressure that Washington is mounting
on Russia, he says.

On March 18 the Secretary General of NATO denounced the peace
settlement between Russia and Georgia that ended Georgia's military
assault on South Ossetia. The NATO Secretary General said that NATO
rejects the settlement because it "hampers ongoing efforts by the
international community to strengthen security and stability in the
region." Look closely at this statement. It defines the "international
community" as Washington's NATO puppet states, and it defines
strengthening security and stability as removing buffers between
Russia and Georgia so that Washington can position military bases in
Georgia directly on Russia's border, Roberts says.

In Poland and the Baltic states, he adds, Washington and NATO lies
about a pending Russian invasion are being used to justify provocative
war games on Russia's borders and to build up US forces in NATO
military bases on Russia's borders.

"We have crazed U.S. generals on national television calling for
"killing Russians." The EU leadership has agreed to launch a
propaganda war against Russia, broadcasting Washington's lies inside
Russia in an effort to undermine the Russian people's support of their
government. All of this is being done in order to coerce Russia into
handing over Crimea and its Black Sea naval base to Washington and
accepting vassalage under Washington's suzerainty," Roberts says.

If Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Assad, and the Taliban would not fold to
Washington's threats, why do the fools in Washington think Putin, who
holds in his hands the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, will
fold? European governments, apparently, are incapable of any thought.
Washington has set London and the capitals of every European country,
as well as every American city, for destruction by Russian nuclear
weapons. The stupid Europeans rush to destroy themselves in service to
their Washington master, Roberts claims.

Human intelligence, according to him, has gone missing if after 14
years of US military aggression against eight countries the world does
not understand that Washington is lost in arrogance and hubris and
imagines itself the ruler of the universe who will tolerate no dissent
from its will.

We know that the American, British, and European media are xxxxxs well
paid to lie for their master. We know that the NATO commander and
secretary general, if not the member countries, are lusting for war.
We know that the American Dr. Strangeloves in the Pentagon and
armaments industry cannot wait to test their ABMs and new weapons
systems in which they always place excessive confidence. We know that
the prime minister of Britain is a total cipher. But are the
chancellor of Germany and the president of France ready for the
destruction of their countries and of Europe? If the EU is of such
value, why is the very existence of its populations put at risk in
order to bow down and accept leadership from an insane Washington
whose megalomania will destroy life on earth?" Roberts concludes.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for
Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He
was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and
Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His
internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest
books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic
Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost.

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Russia Under Attack -- Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/189652/

[Haykakan]

Re: USA-Armenia relations

YEREVAN. – The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations of Armenia received information on Saturday at 12:48pm.

Accordingly, there was an explosive device in the US Embassy in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, and rescuers were needed.

A rescue squad, an operative team, and a firefighting brigade were dispatched to the scene.

But no explosive device was found in the premises.

The embassy staff told Armenian News-NEWS.am that, during the search for an explosive device, the rescuers had evacuated all staff from the embassy.