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Washington Briefing : Senator Kennedy's Leadership On Armenian Issue

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  • Washington Briefing : Senator Kennedy's Leadership On Armenian Issue

    WASHINGTON BRIEFING : SENATOR KENNEDY'S LEADERSHIP ON ARMENIAN ISSUES RECALLED
    by Emil Sanamyan

    http://www.reporter.am/index.cfm?objecti d=D348765A-93C7-11DE-8CE10003FF3452C2
    Friday August 28, 2009

    Washington - Armenian-Americans this week remembered the longstanding
    leadership and support of Senator Edward Kennedy (D.-Mass.). Senator
    Kennedy died on August 26 after months of battling with cancer. He
    was 77 years old.

    Throughout more than four decades in the U.S. Congress, Senator
    Kennedy actively supported Armenian-American concerns, including
    U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide and independent Armenia's
    security and development, the Armenian National Committee of
    Massachusetts recalled in a press statement.

    These efforts included securing the Senate Judiciary Committee's
    passage in 1989 of an Armenian Genocide resolution; Senator Kennedy
    worked together with, among others, Vice President Joe Biden, who at
    the time was a senator and chairperson of the committee.

    Senator Kennedy championed the 1991 passage of a resolution that
    condemned Azerbaijan's anti-Armenian pogroms that resulted in
    the expulsion of more than 300,000 Armenians and was followed by
    Azerbaijan's aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh.

    In later years, Senator Kennedy played a key role in the passage and
    maintenance of U.S. sanctions against Azerbaijan, known as Section
    907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, as well as the 1994 passage of the
    Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, which came in response to Turkey's
    closure of its border with Armenia. [The same year, he hosted
    a reception for the president of Armenia at the John F. Kennedy
    Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.]

    Speaking on April 21, 1999, at the annual commemoration of the
    Armenian Genocide held on Capitol Hill, Senator Kennedy argued that
    "if people here in the United States had paid attention to the
    Genocide in the early part of this century, we would not have had,
    perhaps, the tragedies in World War II" and later genocidal campaigns
    in former Yugoslavia and Africa.

    During the April 24, 2000, commemoration at Trinity Church in Boston,
    Senator Kennedy stressed that while "the persecution of the Armenian
    people and the atrocities committed against them will never be
    forgotten . . . the continuing leadership of the Armenian people
    throughout the world today, and the birth of the Armenian republic
    provide an example to us all of what the human spirit at its best
    can achieve."

    In a June 5, 2006, letter, signed together with Senator John
    Kerry (D.-Mass.), Senator Kennedy raised concerns with the Bush
    administration's early recall of Ambassador John M. Evans from Armenia
    over the ambassador's comments on the Armenian Genocide; the letter
    demanded an explanation for the move.

    A member of America's most prominent political family, Edward
    Kennedy will be remembered as a strong and effective champion of
    liberal values. In the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Kennedy's
    endorsement of Barack Obama came at pivotal moment in a tough
    primary race.

    Senator Kennedy will be buried beside his brothers at the Arlington
    National Cemetery on August 29.
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