Armenian Assembly decries aid disparity in U.S. FY 2007 request
February 8, 2006
RIA Novosti,
By Gamlet Matevosyan
A proposal from the White House to fund overseas military programs in 2007 has caused a stir in the Armenian community in the United States.
The Bush administration's proposal for Foreign Military Financing calls for $4.5m in aid for Azerbaijan but only $3.5m in Armenia, the Armenian Assembly of America said in a news release.
Furthermore, the draft budget also proposed $885,000 for Azerbaijan versus $790,000 for Armenia in International Military Education and Training (IMET) assistance.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a dispute that flared into bloody fighting in the early 1990s over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of the former but has a majority Armenian population.
According to the release, Assembly Board of Directors Chairman Anthony Barsamian expressed disappointment with the administration's request for asymmetrical military assistance to Azerbaijan and Armenia, arguing that the disparity would only serve to undermine stability in the South Caucasus.
Barsamian said that the Assembly, working in conjunction with the Armenian-American community and Members of Congress, would make every attempt to reverse the administration's attempt to provide Baku with an increase of more than $1 million over Yerevan.
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
RIA Novosti,
By Gamlet Matevosyan
A proposal from the White House to fund overseas military programs in 2007 has caused a stir in the Armenian community in the United States.
The Bush administration's proposal for Foreign Military Financing calls for $4.5m in aid for Azerbaijan but only $3.5m in Armenia, the Armenian Assembly of America said in a news release.
Furthermore, the draft budget also proposed $885,000 for Azerbaijan versus $790,000 for Armenia in International Military Education and Training (IMET) assistance.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a dispute that flared into bloody fighting in the early 1990s over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of the former but has a majority Armenian population.
According to the release, Assembly Board of Directors Chairman Anthony Barsamian expressed disappointment with the administration's request for asymmetrical military assistance to Azerbaijan and Armenia, arguing that the disparity would only serve to undermine stability in the South Caucasus.
Barsamian said that the Assembly, working in conjunction with the Armenian-American community and Members of Congress, would make every attempt to reverse the administration's attempt to provide Baku with an increase of more than $1 million over Yerevan.
[...]
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home