‘Armenians to be biggest losers in Bryza’s return to Washington’

The biggest losers in Matthew Bryza's return to Washington and his recall as the U.S. ambassador won't be Americans or Azerbaijanis, but Armenians - poor, isolated and once again victims of a power play that has nothing to do with their well-being, an article by Fred Hiatt on the Washington Post says.

"In the great modern novel of Washington dysfunction, this is a small subplot. But the failing nomination of Matthew Bryza, out of public view and without so much as a committee vote, offers a vivid example of how the larger U.S. national interest can fall victim to special-interest jockeying and political accommodation," the article says.

"Barring a last-minute surprise in the U.S. Senate, the well-qualified diplomat President Obama sent to serve as ambassador to Azerbaijan will have to come home in less than a month," Washington Post writes.

"This particular story begins not in Azerbaijan, but with its neighbor Armenia - small, poor country. Armenia has committed diaspora in the United States, France and elsewhere. But the past 20 years have brought disappointment: a government that is democratic more in form than substance and a corrupt, under performing economy. Armenia is the 141st poorest country in the world, with a per capita income of $5,700" Hiatt writes.

He believes that one reason for the sub-par performance has been Armenia's inability to settle grievances with neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey. The cold peace has exacerbated the ill effects of being landlocked.

"And one reason peacemaking has failed is the dogmatism of some diaspora groups. A fervent, at times even counterproductively so, diaspora is not unique, but it has been particularly debilitating for minuscule, resource-poor Armenia," Hiatt writes. This is the context for the campaign against Bryza, deemed insufficiently hostile to Armenia's enemies by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and two Democratic senators with Armenian American constituencies, Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.), the article says.
When Obama first nominated Bryza in 2010, Boxer and Menendez put a "hold" on his nomination, preventing a Senate vote.

Senators' doubts about Bryza are not widely shared. On the contrary, 36 foreign policy luminaries, including former undersecretaries of state Thomas Pickering and Nicholas Burns, released a letter last week calling Bryza an "exemplary" ambassador who has served "with distinction, the article says.

According to the article, the heads of the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute are among his supporters. But all four signed the letter.

Bryza has been promoting dialogue between the Azerbaijani regime and civil society. He's been promoting reconciliation with Armenia, too, the article says. "If Azerbaijan sees that the Armenia lobby, and two out of 100 senators, have veto power, the regime is unlikely to trust in the neutrality of the next envoy," Hiatt writes.

"The biggest losers in all this won't be Americans or Azerbaijanis (who, by the way, enjoy about twice the per capita income of Armenians), but Armenians - poor, isolated and once again victims of a power play that has nothing to do with their well-being," the article says.


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