A new chapter begins

Published: Thursday November 06, 2008

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With the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden as president and vice president of the United States, a new chapter begins in the relationship of the Armenian-American community with the executive branch. Not unlike previous chapters, this one carries the provisional title, "Working Hard, Together."

As a candidate, Mr. Obama repeatedly reached out to Armenian-Americans. He pledged that as president he would

* recognize the Armenian Genocide and work to end genocide;

* support a settlement of the Karabakh conflict "based upon America's founding commitment to the principles of democracy and self-determination";

* "help foster Armenia's growth and development through expanded trade and targeted aid"

* "strengthen the commercial, political, military, developmental, and cultural relationships" between the governments of the United States and Armenia; and

* "continue his active engagement with Armenian American leaders."

Mr. Obama's campaign commitments are a starting point. Now Armenian-American activists and Armenian-American advocacy groups, in consultation with our friends in Congress, need to work together to help the Obama administration carry out these commitments in a manner that is consistent with the best interests of the United States.

Working with his transition team, Mr. Obama has already started appointing the officials and advisors who will develop and carry out the policies he has espoused in principle. We know we will be pleased with some appointments and concerned about others. Be that as it may, it will be our job to reach out to the members of the new administration and help them shape a foreign policy in which America is true to its most basic values: standing firmly for democracy and self-determination; opposing ethnic cleansing and genocide; and favoring cooperation on the basis of common interests over confrontation and war.

In so doing, we will continue to need the friendship, advice, and cooperation of our friends in Congress. We take this opportunity to congratulate those friends who prevailed on Election Day and thank again those who did not, above all our very good friend Rep. Joe Knollenberg, Republican of Michigan, co-chair of the House Caucus on Armenian Affairs.

We will need to continue our outreach to newly elected members of Congress, educating them about our issues and showing them our firm commitment to the principles we espouse. We will need to continue to build up the House Caucus on Armenian Affairs.

If we continue our advocacy work with the same enthusiasm with which we supported the Obama-Biden campaign and our friends in the Congressional elections, we can be confident that the new chapter now beginning will have a happy ending.

Tapping into communities

In his election campaign, Mr. Obama made remarkable use of the tools we use daily to communicate with each other: text messages, video clips, Facebook - all ways one supporter can quickly spread the word to dozens of his or her friends and acquaintances. Using these and other methods, he also organized supporters to do something very old-fashioned: talk to family, friends, and neighbors face-to-face.

The methods would count for little, however, if the substance of Mr. Obama's message were not appealing.

The message Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden delivered repeatedly to Armenian-American voters reached us, and it inspired us to support his campaign wholeheartedly. Our advocacy organizations and mass media - the Armenian Reporter prominently among them - endorsed Mr. Obama and urged that our community help him prevail.  Across the nation, Armenian-Americans volunteered and organized and contributed.

The popular Facebook group Armenians for Obama was one way Armenian-Americans got the message out. But it went beyond that, as Election Day interviews carried out by our correspondent Lory Tatoulian show: Armenian-Americans of a certain age, some of them new citizens, chatting with each other around their tavloo boards in the parks and courtyards of Southern California, were enthusiastic in their support of the Obama-Biden ticket.

Mr. Obama's victory was made possible also by the immense unpopularity of the president he will replace, George W. Bush. There is no need to enumerate yet again the missteps of the Bush administration; we have discussed those missteps, particularly in foreign policy, on many previous occasions. We would simply recall that Mr. Obama, as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Mr. Biden, as that committee's chairperson, spoke out thoughtfully and firmly against those missteps as they related to issues of concern to Armenian-Americans.

And they have promised repeatedly and unequivocally to pursue a different course. We will work with them as we have in the past to help ensure that happens.

A historic, inspiring victory

Only a few generations ago, men and women brought from Africa in shackles were bought and sold as property in the United States, as were their children and grandchildren. In living memory, African-Americans were lynched for daring to assert themselves, while racial discrimination, segregation, and everyday humiliation were the norm.

The history of the United States - from its inception, through the Civil War, through the present - is, in many ways, the history of a struggle for civil rights and equal opportunities. For African-Americans and others of goodwill who organized and marched and struggled and went to prison as part of that struggle, this election is a vindication of sorts.