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PRESS
RELEASE
For Immediate Release ~ October 25, 1999
Contact:
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STEVE FORBES SERVES ON BOARD OF ANTI-ARMENIAN GROUP
Helps Finance Racial Stereotyping of "Stealthy" Armenian Americans
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Falls Church, VA: The Armenian American Democratic Leadership Council (AADLC) revealed today that Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes helps to finance and serves on the Board of an anti-Armenian "think tank" which has unfairly attacked Armenian American participation in the political process and consistently sought to undermine U.S. support for Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
The group, the Center for Security Policy, has publicly described Armenian Americans as a "stealthy" group which acts in the "worst tradition of translating financial contributions into backroom political deals." The Center's publications consistently stereotype Armenian Americans as an "affluent and well-connected group," and regularly call on U.S. policymakers to correct "the damage done to America's strategic interests in the Caspian Basin thanks to five years of Armenian-American control of the issue."
The Center, which receives financing from Steve Forbes and the Forbes Foundation, also accepts funds from Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas Foundation, Merrill Lynch, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Phillip Morris Management, Rockwell International, Textron Corporation, Thiokol Corporation, and TRW.
Joining Steve Forbes on the Center's Board of Advisors are a number of leading opponents of the Armenian American community, among them former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Livingston, who spearheaded failed Congressional efforts to lift restrictions imposed on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan as a result of its blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
Also serving on the Board of Advisors, according to the group's web site, is Richard Perle, a former Reagan Administration official who later served as a paid lobbyist for the Turkish government. Perle is credited with leading opposition to Congressional efforts during the 1980s to commemorate the Armenian Genocide. According to the October 23rd issue of National Journal, Perle is presently "an adviser to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush."
A number of other leading Republicans also serve on the Board, including Pete Wilson, former Governor of the State of California; William Bennett, former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and former Secretary of Education; Edwin Feulner, Jr., President of the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
In its publications, all available at its website, the Center for Security Policy has:
* Called for the elimination of U.S. aid to Armenia, noting that "U.S. strategic interests would be better served by a suspension of aid to Armenia and the provision of assistance to Azerbaijan." (No. 98-D 56, March 31, 1998)
* Attacked Section 907 as "an outdated and counterproductive provision." (No. 96-D 85, September 17, 1996)
* Sought to mischaracterize Armenian American political participation as simply the product of "the Democratic Party's traditional connection to the politically active and deep-pocketed Armenian-American community." (No. 98-D 171, October 9, 1998)
* Opposed direct U.S. humanitarian aid to Nagorno Karabagh, describing Congressional efforts toward this goal as "highly undesirable." (No. 96-D 85, September 17, 1996)
* Called for "a wholehearted American embrace of democratic, secular Turkey -- a truly indispensable nation for American and Western interests in a critical part of the world." (No. 97-D 199, December 19, 1997)
* Incorrectly charged that "Armenia is now occupying some 20% of Azerbaijani territory." (No. 96-D 85, September 17, 1996)
For addition information on the Center, please visit: http://www.security-policy.org.
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