ANCA expands focus on foreign aid to Armenia, Artsakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian National Committee of America's (ANCA), in its Capitol Hill advocacy and grassroots activism, has expanded the Armenian American community's traditional foreign aid focus of increasing aid to Armenia and Artsakh and cutting it for Turkey and Azerbaijan, by supporting appropriations language targeting American financial support for the at-risk Armenian community of Syria and the vulnerable Armenian-populated Javkahkh region of Georgia.

An ANCA Action Alert, posted on www.anca.org, calls on U.S. legislators to support provisions in the U.S. House version of the Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) foreign aid bill, when the two houses of Congress reconcile their two versions of this appropriations measure. The House version:

- Increases developmental and humanitarian aid to Nagorno Karabakh from $2 million to $5 million.

- Calls upon the State Department to continue support of humanitarian and resettlement assistance for minority communities, including Armenians and other Christian populations in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.

- Maintains economic aid to Armenia at the FY12 level of $40 million (despite President's Obama's efforts to reduce this figure to $32.5 million).

- Directs the Obama Administration to report on the impact of FY05 - FY12 aid to Samstskhe-Javakheti and its strategy for future development of this region.

- Maintains military aid parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan at $2.7 million for Foreign Military Financing and $600,000 in International Military Education and Training.

The ANCA's outreach to Congressional offices has included the distribution of charts illustrating the sharp rise in Baku's military spending and a parallel increase in Azerbaijani cross-border incursions into both Armenia and Artsakh.