HOUSE & SENATE ADOPT $90 MILLION AID PACKAGE FOR ARMENIA

[SaSSoun]

Source: Anca.org

WASHINGTON, DC - Despite an overall reduction in U.S. assistance to
the former Soviet republics, the House voted 338 to 83 for a $397
billion Omnibus Appropriations bill that maintains assistance to
Armenia at $90 million for the 2003 fiscal year, reported the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA.) The Senate passed
the legislation by a margin of 76 to 20 the same evening.

The votes followed weeks of work by House and Senate
Foreign Operations conferees, led by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), to reconcile differences in the two versions
of the FY03 foreign aid bills adopted last year. The House, last
summer, had initially approved $84.3 million for Armenia. The
Senate approved $90 million, the same level as Armenia's actual
fiscal year 2002 appropriation. Senator McConnell has been a long-
time champion of U.S. assistance to Armenia. The ANC of Arizona
met with Chairman Kolbe last October, as the fiscal year 2003
foreign aid figures were taking shape.

"We want to thank all of our friends on the foreign operations
conference committee for agreeing to the Senate figure of $90
million for Armenia in the fiscal year 2003 foreign aid bill.
Their efforts, in the face of so many competing spending
priorities, will help offset the impact of the Turkish and
Azerbaijani blockades of Armenia," said Aram Hamparian, Executive
Director of the ANCA. "In the coming days and weeks, we will
step up our outreach to appropriators in both houses to
reverse the sharp cut in aid to Armenia proposed by the President
in his fiscal year 2004 budget."

The Bush Administration's fiscal year 2004 budget, released last
week, called for $49.5 million in assistance to Armenia, a
significant drop from last year's Presidential request of $70
million and the actual fiscal year 2002 appropriation of $90.2
million. Comparatively, the Administration's request for
Azerbaijan saw a much smaller reduction, going from a $46 million
request in fiscal year 2003 to $41.5 million for fiscal year 2004.

The fiscal year 2003 foreign aid bill was adopted as part of the
Omnibus Appropriations legislation. The measure calls for $760
million in assistance to former Soviet republics, a $24 million
reduction from last year. While citing a $90 million "hard
earmark" in economic assistance for Armenia, the bill does not
include a minimum military assistance level. However, the
Conference Report recommends that, "the full IMET [International
Military Education and Training] and FMF [foreign military funding]
requests for Armenia will be provided in fiscal year 2003, and
specifies that "a portion of the FMF funds should be used to
enhance communications capabilities."

The Conference report also specifically encourages the "State
Department to continue discussions with the sponsors of the
proposed Center for the Advancement of Natural Discoveries Using
Light Emission (CANDLE) project and relevant Armenian authorities
on the economic viability and sustainability of the project. The
managers recommend that continued funding for the project's study
be made available from assistance provided for Armenia in the Act."

In a departure from prior practice, the fiscal year 2003 foreign
aid bill does not call for a hard earmark for the Republic of
Georgia. The Conference report does, however, cite continued
Congressional support for "the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Georgia" and notes that the "request for Georgia will
be made available by the Administration." The report goes on to
encourage "the Government of Georgia to take more effective
measures to defend human rights and the rule of law by protecting
religious minorities against mob violence."

While not specifying assistance levels to Azerbaijan, the
Conference report did make special note of Congressional concern
about "the murder of John Alvis, a democracy worker with the
International Republican Institute, in Azerbaijan. The managers
request that within 30 days of enactment of this Act, the State
Department provide an update on the status of the investigation.
The managers expect the State Department and relevant Azeri
authorities to continue to make this investigation a top priority."

Following the House adoption of the Omnibus appropriations bill,
House Appropriations Subcommittee senior member and Congressional
Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), stated, "American
assistance to Armenia is critical to offset the challenges imposed
on Armenia by its neighbors. Armenia is one of our strongest
allies in the region, and has demonstrated a strong desire to build
a friendly and cooperative relationship with the United States.
This aid will continue to strengthen the ties between our two
countries."

New Jersey Democrat Steve Rothman concurred, noting, "I was
delighted to use my position on the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations to secure $90 million in
economic assistance to Armenia in the Fiscal Year 2003 Omnibus
Appropriations bill, $20 million more than requested by President
Bush. This assistance will provide the people of Armenia the
opportunity to continue the great successes they have achieved in
economic development over the past few years. While I am pleased
with the outcome for the current fiscal year, I pledge to increase
the woefully inadequate $49 million in economic assistance that the
Bush Administration has proposed for Armenia in Fiscal Year 2004."

In the weeks leading up to the House-Senate conference on the
foreign aid bill, over 20 Representatives sent a letter, initiated
by Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), to Chairman
Kolbe, encouraging support for a number of provisions in the bill
impacting Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. Noting that "the dual
blockades of Armenia by Azerbaijan and Turkey continue to impede
Armenia's economic well-being," the co-signers urged their
colleagues to ensure that "not less than $90 million" be provided
for Armenia. The letter also urged $3 million in Foreign Military
Financing and $750,000 in International Military Education Training
(IMET) for Armenia.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a co-signer of the letter, explained that he was
"very pleased that U.S. aid to Armenia for fiscal year 2003 will be
$90 million. Any reduction in aid would have seriously jeopardized
ongoing humanitarian, economic development and democracy-building
projects currently underway in Armenia."

[Anonymouse]

Yep, 90 million dollars to warm the seats of the fat cat politicians. Way to go corporate America.

[Lilya]

i get so depressed when i hear that America is giving assistance to Armenia. I mean they can at least be decent enough not to call it assistance. Fund for Armenian government members to buy a third mansion sounds more reasonable.. And to those rich armenian- americans who put thier fortunes into what? building new churches in Armenia???? And this will help the poverty how exactly???

[Anonymouse]

I couldn't agree with you more. How many times must money be spent carelessly and on material possessions? How many more mansions are going to be brought up? How many petty churches are going to be erected? You see, if you follow the history of Armenia, once it accepted the monotheistic religion Christianity as its state religion, it began its downward spiral. I mean all organized religions are nothing but petty man made promises designed to instill fear and obedience among the people being ruled. And to know that Armenians fought a bloody civil war over this religion just mind boggles me.

Building a new church won't make God pity you. Stop building those damn churches and instead build some factories or give the money to the commonfolk, anything but wasteful and silly spending.

[Lilya]

Thank you!!!!!!!!! you are the first Armenian I've come across Anonymouse who sees that Christianity was the downward spiral of Armenians. You know, when the Pagan priests were stoned by the newly Christian Armenians. One priest, said before he died - this religion will bring dispair to Armenians and the Armenian homeland. Pretty smart guy no?

[Anonymouse]

And it has. Christianity is pure bunk.

In fact, all organized religion is pure bunk anyway. It was nothing more than to control the masses. Christianity was actually imperitive to the downfall of the Roman Empire, but whatever. It was the "Communism" of its time in that it was revolutionary. The so called "Christians were martyrs" bullxxxx is simply untrue, if that were so the Roman legions wouldn't have massacred them. They were just as violent to get their ideology across to others as Muslim fanatics are now. Any ideology that is revolutionary and new in its ideas will have drastic and revolutionary people to spread.

Even Hitler knew this. He argued in Mein Kampf that no ideology that exists today would have existed without the use of force. And that is how the ideology of National Socialism, Communism etc all came to be, through force. No ideology just comes out of no where and is accepted by people. It has to be forced and without it no ideology stands a chance.

[Lilya]

The Armenian government barely pays the Armenian delegates to the UN. They were here in NY several months ago trying to raise money so they can hold their seats. That is just disgusting in part of the government. And i really hate it when people call me a self-hating Armenian for critizing the government that is "trying to pull together a newly forming country". what the xxxx is wrong with them? why dont they attack the government for stealing the country's money? Its really funny when they talk about the positive changes the current government has brought about. The government has not done anything, its only common sense that a nation's economy is bound to sightly improve on its own after getting out of the situation of the early to mid 1990's.

[Anonymouse]

Alot of the former Soviet republics are rebounding from the financial slump they took after the breakup of the Union, yet Armenia remains one of the few that is lagging and this is due to the fact that the people who rule that country don't care for it.

And it infuriates me even more when bumbling Armenians squabble over
'tashnags' or whatever other xxxxing faction exists and claim to have the answers to everything. The bottom line is this, Armenians have always had a lack of unison. Freedom hasn't been their thing. Armenians have functioned better under the threat of the sword or the gun or being ruled by an empire than they have under freedom and this is a simple historical fact. Armenia has its freedom now, yet is it really free? As soon as it got its freedom everyone started to carve out the land as booty. It's just the way it is.

[Lilya]

I think the current government will be in power for a while because of the fact that they claim the population of Armenia is 3.6 million. First of all, since the population is probably 1 million lesser, there are lesser people to distribute money to, meaning each family receives more than they would if there were 3.6 million people living in the country. For someone looking from the outside, it seems like Armenia is not doing so bad since personal income is made to look higher, (yet why dont they question why 55% is below the poverty line?)
The second thing is that many people counted in the population dont actually live in the country. So when election time comes around, the party in control has a whole lot of free votes for themselves. I dont know how accurate all this really is but it does make sense, Anyway we will see what happens in the upcoming election.

[Anonymouse]

Democracy is always a joke as it is victim to the most basic human trait...the same reason the idealistic nonsense of Communism can't work.

In this world, all governments aside, there is either despotism, whether covert or overt, or anarchy.