American Armenian community has finally learnt not to put trust in election promises of the U.S. presidential candidates.
Recent statement by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) proves the above-mentioned, announcing that neither President Barack Obama nor former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has earned the Armenian American community's formal backing heading into the November 6 presidential election.
"Neither Barack Obama, who turned his back on the multiple promises he made on Armenian American issues, nor Mitt Romney, who as a former Governor of Massachusetts, has no evident public record on issues of special concern to our community, has earned the support of Armenian American voters," said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.
It’s become a sad tradition for the U.S. presidential candidates to forget their promises, with their memory glitch bearing direct relevance to a need to gain more votes as a candidate and pander to Turkey as a president.
The last 2 U.S. Presidents were quite consistent in backing down on their words. Once in office, George W. Bush, Jr. protested the term “genocide” and pursued policy which ran contrary to his promises to Armenian community. Barack Obama, as a presidential candidate, passionately spoke of his intention to recognize the Genocide, however conveniently “forgetting” about the intention once he moved into the White House.
On the fourth Armenian Remembrance Day of his presidency, President Barack Obama had for the fourth time in a row broken his promise to the Armenian community to use the word “genocide” instead using the Armenian “Meds Yeghern” term.
In August 2012, ANCA called upon President Obama to meet with the broad-based leadership of the Armenian American community, noting that his failure, over the past three and a half years, to consult personally with representatives of his Armenian American constituents – major stakeholders in U.S. foreign policy on Armenian issues – is unhealthy for U.S. diplomacy.
However, over the past months, Obama has never found time for the meeting, which didn’t boost his authority in the eyes of Armenian-born voters.
As for Mitt Romney, he never took any actions to support the issues of concern to Armenians, which makes it hard for them to find any reason to believe him.
At the same time, ANCA expressed readiness to cooperate with the future President as well as representatives of the U.S. National Security Council and State Department in solving the issues relating to Armenians.
Seems like disappointment of the Armenian community has come to a head, with the American Armenians deciding to adopt a “wait and see” motto to avoid a new disillusionment.
