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The enduring
friendship between the American and Armenian
peoples dates back to the era of the
Armenian Genocide. American leaders, such as
President Woodrow Wilson, diplomats, most
notably U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire Henry Morgenthau, and relief workers,
among them American Red Cross founder Clara
Barton, played a critical role in protesting
Ottoman Turkey's systematic destruction of
the Armenian people and in helping to
alleviate the suffering of those that
survived. These noble efforts, to a very
great extent, marked the introduction of the
United States on the world stage as an
advocate for international justice, human
rights and humanitarian values.
Throughout the
Cold War, the United States championed the
right of the Armenian people to an
independent homeland and, in December of
1991, was among the first to recognize
Armenian independence. Even prior to
Armenia's independence, in December of 1988,
the U.S. government and the American people,
in an unprecedented act of compassion across
the iron curtain, extended their generosity
to the Armenian people as they recovered
from a devastating earthquake that took over
40,000 lives.
In the decade
since 1991, the U.S. and the Armenian
governments have steadily expanded relations
based on a history of shared values and
common interests in a secure stable Caucasus
and Caspian region. At the national level,
the U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force,
launched in January of 2000, coordinates
this effort by bringing together officials
from the Departments of State, Commerce and
Treasury, the Trade Development Agency, the
U.S. Agency for International Development,
and the National Security Council, to
promote economic cooperation between the
United States and Armenia.
Similar
efforts are also underway at the state
level, with the creation in August of 2001
of the Virginia Armenian Advisory Commission
to advise the Governor of that state on
programs to expand cooperation between the
Virginia and Armenia, as well as the
signing, in December 2001, of a Memorandum
of Understanding between California and
Armenia on economic cooperation and the
establishment of a California Trade Office
in Yerevan. |
