Armenian sway over US lawmakers

By Laura Smith-Spark BBC News, Washington
... The resolution, passed by the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs committee, was written by Democrat Adam Schiff, whose California district is home to the US's largest ethnic-Armenian community. Across the country, Armenian-Americans have been lobbying politicians, and publicising their view of the massacres as genocide - a suggestion the Turkish government and most Turks furiously reject. Historians are also divided on whether this was a case of genocide. More than 20 countries have formally recognised genocide against the Armenians, however. Given that Armenians represent only about 1.5m of America's 300m population, what has won them such influence over the US Congress - and perhaps the nation's foreign policy?

Organised lobby
Part of the answer lies in the organisation and determination of the Armenian-American lobby groups, says Dr Svante Cornell, of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) are among the most powerful. Another factor is that the Armenian-American community is largely concentrated in important states such as California, Michigan and Massachusetts, Dr Cornell said. "You have basically a number of places where the Armenian issue is very important in local politics - especially for anybody wanting to get elected in California," he said. "The Turkish lobby is much less organised and much less rooted in an electorate than the Armenian lobby" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7040344.stm Svante E. Cornell is the Editor of the Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, a bi-weekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute of The Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Cornell holds a Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University.