Monday, February 23, 2009

Genocide and Ethics, Past and Present: ANCA, ARF and CREW

On February 18, a Washington D.C. based organization called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced that it was filing a complaint against the ANCA-WR and the ANCA Endowment Fund with the Department of Justice (DoJ), the IRS, the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate, for violating their status as charitable organizations, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
The letter to the authorities points out the following. The ANCA is registered as a tax exempt organization, and as such, cannot participate in political campaigns. The ANCA and the ARF are, in fact, tightly associated, and as they are a foreign political party, their agents need to register with the DoJ, which they have not. And, as a lobbying group, they have not registered, as required, with the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate. All of this is supported by direct quotes from publications of the ARF and the ANCA, and as you can imagine, many of the higher ups in these groups. You can see the full news release, the letter to the authorities, and some of the "exhibits" at CREW's website.

It would take quite a bit to convince me that this is a coincidence. That as pressure mounts on SS, from a plethora of internal and external issues in Armenia and NKR, and as talks between Turkey and Armenia accelerate, suddenly an organization like CREW, which has never before addressed an issue that wasn't completely US based (at least from my perusal of their 19-page list of press releases since 2003), suddenly takes an interest in the ARF and ANCA.

Now, I am no fan of these organizations. But this looks like it's politically motivated, especially since the Genocide recognition bill has been activated. And whom does it benefit? Well, obviously anyone who is against Genocide recognition. That includes many Turkish political organizations. Who else?

I wonder if having the bill pass would distract the Diaspora enough that SS could then latch onto it, take advantage of the jubilation that would result and try to muster more support for himself from the Diaspora.

Or, is the potential recognition of the Genocide severely disrupting his plans, whatever they may be, whether they involve Turkey directly or indirectly. Might he and his cronies derive some benefit from this type of intervention?

I don't know who is behind this, and I'm sure there's a lot more to it than what I've outlined above. For CREW, which purports to be about ethics, it sure seems ironic that they are using their principles to fight a group trying to promote recognition of a Genocide. There are endless numbers of other national and international issues they could have picked, why this one?

9 comments:

Ani said...

It would seem to be an odd coincidence if these two events were NOT related: http://tinyurl.com/azhpsa

President Obama telephones with Turkish leaders

Feb 17, 2009, 8:19 GMT
Washington - US President Barack Obama spoke Monday with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in separate telephone calls, the White House said.

The talks included 'US support for the growing Turkish-Iraqi relationship, the importance of cooperation in Middle East peace efforts, and the US review on Afghanistan and Pakistan policy.'

The White described the conversations as 'warm and productive' and 'wide-ranging'.

Obama emphasized the two countries' 'mutual strategic interest.' The US and Turkey are both NATO members.

Anonymous said...

More infighting by those who promote the erosion of Armenian national interests.

Jackasses promoted by God-only-knows dark forces who have built up the TARCs and the phony democracy movement led by LTP (wolf in sheep's clothing) and now this overnight creation called CREW...

Anti-Armenianism taking advantage of weak Armenian institutions.

Shameful.

Ani said...

About this "overnight sensation" called CREW: http://www.citizensforethics.org/

Since 2003, CREW has closely monitored government ethics, bringing egregious conduct to light and holding public officials accountable for their misconduct. On our website you’ll find exhaustively investigated reports on corruption prepared by our research staff, high-impact lawsuits filed by our legal team, as well as the latest national ethics news.
---------------------------
Really, "anonymous," it's not so hard to look things up. And if you think that LTP is behind this, I've got a bridge to sell ya. And as for any SS involvement, I don't think the Obama administration has made his acquaintance, and even if they have, he's only begging for money. Turkey they know, though.

Anonymous said...

This is more likely Republicans paying back for ANC stupidity. Now im not a right winger but time and time again Republicans have had a bad experience with the ANC.
I doubt its foriegn pressure cause the fuss about it is low, and why in February and not lets say March or April when the new bill will have more of a focus?
On a side note, how stupid of an organization can you be to not follow the rules when your lobbying?

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

It's silly to assume that this is a Turkish plot since this is an internal US affair and we don't need no stinkin' foreigners tell us how to handle our business.

But there could be that some lawyers paid by Turkish lobbyists have done their due diligence in finding the alleged law violations.

Let's see how this works out. I would hate to see ANCA and the others get penalized or disappear even though I do nto like their conduct since the presidential elections in Armenia last year.

Anonymous said...

hold your horses anonymous, we are hearing the same old record again, LTP and the "dark forces" are behind everything bad as usual, this conspiracy theories and rumours are more like asian, middle eastern thinking,
and blaming such "forces" and "anti-armenianists" (if only you can define that armenianism...) will not cover up for our failures, weaknesses, an autocratic, oppressive regime in RA with its economic disasters, backward thinking,semi-fascist parties in diaspora, Genocide-fixated small-scale organizations, and their old fashioned, useless methodologies, all this, instead of focusing on our problems, we find the easy way, blame the "dark forces" and jews, LTP etc...

very typical, very diasporan indeed

Ankakh_Hayastan said...

So far no accusation of judeo-masonic dark forces being behind this. Some of our dear anonymous friends are slacking.

Ani said...

Well, I don't think it's a "plot," but because the Genocide recognition suddenly seems likely, with Obama/Hillary/Biden already having used the word, the Turkish lobbyists have been quite busy--see many stories in Hurriyet, Today's Zaman, etc.

Since apparently they lost Israeli support, working by subtraction to disqualify a major Armenian lobbying group might restore balance somewhat. Hopefully the Obama administration has a plan that isn't dependent on lobbying groups as sounding boards(?) That's change I'd believe in...

Anonymous said...

Anyone who gives 1 penny to ANCA is betraying Armenia and real Armenian causes. By giving your money to ANC you are pissing on Armenia and Armenian culture and making ANCA ppl more wealthy than they are currently. ANC is a hoax organization that is a typical lobby that wants your money to fill up their pockets to continue their corporate lavish luxurious expensive lifestyle (living in their expensive homes, driving their expensive $80k lexuses, spending $300 on dinners) This ANC is no better than the gov't of Armenia and its mafiatic evil regime which uses gov't controlled "Armenia Fund" (aka: HimnaDram) as way to trick diasporans around the world to give money (which by the way, no REAL Hay ever gives cause we all know where the money really goes)

ANC has no care in the world for Armenia and/or its ppl. This org and its supporters are very "ANTI-ARMENIA" ANC (and other connected orgs such as APAC, AAA, AGBU) dont care if current modern day Armenia even exists, for them Armenia is the past and is now turGAY.

Apparently eastern Armenia is not JEWmerican enough for this org, and it rejects all real Armenians to take part of this org because all real Armenians are for Armenia only, and not about GENOCIDE GENOCIDE GENOCIDE 24/7 using GENOCIDE as a tool to KISS JEWmerican ass's and pretending to care for Armenian related causes

This org and its ppl all act and believe as if Hayastantsis never suffered genocide and see them as "barbaric animals". In fact, Hayastantsis have suffered more over the years than these disasporans who pretend to be Hay for the mere sake of saving face to hide their true intentions. The average Hay in Hayastan makes $200-300 per month vs. the average "very white JEWmerican" ANC corporate type so-called Armenian making $2000-3000 EACH WEEK SITTING ON THEIR PHAT RICH VERY SELFISH EVILS ASS'S DOING NOTHING ACTING AS IF THEY WORK FOR A LIVING BY COLLECTING MONEY FROM THOSE THEY FOOL.

This org, its participants and its partners only cares about 1 thing........THEIR VERY SELFISH SELVES !

PLEASE I STRONGLY URGE YOU DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS EVIL JEWmerican ORG,INSTEAD SEND YOUR MONEY AND SUPPORT TO ARMENIA TO THE POOR SLUM VILLAGERS WHO ARE SUFFERING AND DONT HAVE A POT TO PISS IN. REAL ARMENIANS CARE FOR ARMENIA ONLY, NOT FOR JEWmerica AND ITS CAUSES.

GIVE YOUR MONEY TO COAF, SNFF, AFA, AND OTHER NON-GOVERNMENTAL CONNECTED ORG'S.

ANCA, AAA, APAC, AGBU = 100% PURE ANTI-ARMENIA !!!