Armenia fails in U.S. direction
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Recently, the Armenian media received information about the U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan and Armenia, which caused a shock to the Armenian side. The published data showed that the Armenian lobby fails its function of providing Yerevan with the U.S. funds and interrupting provision of financial resources for Azerbaijan.
Earlier, Emil Sanamyan, analyst of Institute of Armenian Studies at University of South California, published data on the U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. Sanamyan indignantly stated that in 2018 Baku received $59.6 million, and in 2019 Washington plans to allocate almost $43 million.
The funds for Azerbaijan are allocated through the Section 333 Authority to Build Capacity program, which provides material assistance and various training sessions to combat drug trafficking, improving the military infrastructures of the Caspian coast of Azerbaijan and improving the work of military intelligence.
At the same time, as Sanamyan noted, in the 2018 fiscal year, Armenia received only $3.2 million, which was directed to the implementation of the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement program. In 2019 and 2020 Armenia will receive even less - $2.8 million and $2.1 million - respectively.
Armenian expert circles became outraged and accused the U.S. side of violating the 907th amendment. This amendment was adopted under pressure from the Armenian lobby, which prohibited the provision of assistance to Azerbaijan by the U.S. government.
Commenting on the unpleasant facts for the Armenian side, political analyst Suren Sargsyan confessed that “the Azerbaijani lobby is getting stronger every year in the U.S.”
The Armenian side apparently does not understand that the reason for the failure of the Armenian lobby is not in the lobbying of Azerbaijan, but in the strategic national interests which Azerbaijan demonstrates better than Armenia in recent years. Despite the annual multimillion-dollar expenses from the Armenian lobby in the U.S., the efficiency of such expenses remains extremely low.
Continuing to analyze the failures of the Armenian lobby, Sargsyan comes to the conclusion that today, Baku is a more significant partner for Washington than Yerevan. He notes that Baku plays a key logistical role in the transit of American goods to Afghanistan, and that Azerbaijan is an important partner of the U.S. in the South Caucasus region in resolving the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Sargsyan reproached the Armenian lobby with the fact that today it is not able to oppose anything to the strengthening of Azerbaijani-American relations. He believes that the Armenian side should have previously worked consistently with the U.S. in order to ensure at least parity.
Thus, time is lost, and all that remains for Armenia is to wait for the next batch of assistance from its patrons.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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