Democrat Leadership Failing Armenians
Armenians living in southern California have been protesting outside the office and home of their Democrat, Congressional representative, Adam Schiff and have even taken to shutting down a major highway to make their point.
The Armenian community is demanding that more efforts be made to ensure Azerbaijan doesn’t commit a genocide against the Armenian people living in the Republic of Artsakh, which Azerbaijan has been blockading for 8 months, and counting.
Videos circulating from Artsakh, show children passing out while waiting in line for a daily ration on bread, but it isn’t just starvation that the Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan is using as a weapon - his blockade is also preventing fuel and medical supplies from reaching Artsakh.
Armenians fled from their ancestral homes in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) from 1915-1918 when the Ottoman Empire decided to create a national identity of “Turkishness” after the Empire began losing it’s holdings in the Balkans and Greece.
Non-Turkic minorities, including the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, were attacked in the streets and those who weren’t enslaved in labor camps were forced to march towards Syria where many died of starvation and dehydration. Many Armenians were murdered in the process, there homes and businesses stolen while women were raped.
1.5 million Armenians and hundreds of thousands of other minorities lost their lives and introduced the world to the term, “Genocide.”
The survivors who didn’t stay in Armenia or Baku - the capital city of modern-day Azerbaijan which was under the control of Russia at the time - fled to the United States and mostly resided in New York City and Southern California which were common locations for immigrants to establish their new lives.
Schiff’s 30th Congressional District contains a large Armenian population in Glendale and West Hollywood.
(D) Adam Schiff, California District 30
Schiff is a co-chair on the Caucus for Armenian Affairs, and has released statements calling for the Biden administration to do more for Artsakh, but Democratic leadership has done little to avert a humanitarian disaster, beyond releasing statements.
When Joe Biden was still a candidate for president, he promised he would officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. On April 24, 2021, Joe Biden released a statement on Armenian Remembrance Day which acknowledged that a genocide took place, but did nothing to demand compensatory action from Turkey, which is owed from a nation that commits genocide.
Democrats held the White House and Congress for two years between the 2020 and 2022 elections and did nothing to prevent Azerbaijan from occupying Armenian land and terrorizing border towns with mortar and other small arms fire.
On the contrary, Biden’s White House has continued to provide Azerbaijan with military aid, in gross violation of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act.
In May, Schiff introduced a non-actionable resolution to recognize Artsakh as a nation. This measure would be merely symbolic, as resolutions have to force of law and take no actions beyond simple acknowledgement. Critics note that the Democrat Schiff introduced the resolution while Republicans controlled the House instead of the previous two years when Democrats had the numbers to push non-controversial items their constituents wanted.
In recent years, America’s two-party system has become more polarized with both sides taking stark opposition to the interests the other party has traditionally favored.
Many conservatives favor Azerbaijan because of Baku’s energy resources and it’s border with Iran, which Israel uses to conduct intelligence operations and assassinations of nuclear scientists.
That tide appears to be turning when it comes to the humanitarian crisis Armenians are facing. The Republican-controlled house held a hearing in June to introduce facts into the record concerning Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh.
Furthermore, Texas Congressman, Michael McCaul, a Republican who is the current Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee welcomed prelates from the Armenian Apostolic Church after the hearing took place.
Humanitarian assistance must become a bipartisan goal in the United States, otherwise over 120,000 Armenians will be starved to death by Azerbaijan’s genocidal ambitions.
