community squanders an unprecedented opportunity to build a true partnership. Turkey has transformed from an ally into an adversary. From a strictly realist perspective, never before have the constellations oriented in such a favorable way to make the United States receptive to Armenia, should Armenia seize the opportunity.

Yet the Armenian community in the United States appears asleep at the switch. It need not drop its interest in the genocide resolution, but it might nevertheless prioritize strengthening the diplomatic and strategic partnership between Washington and Yerevan. That partnership, however, will not develop if the Armenian Diaspora cannot convince its cousins in the Armenian homeland that a successful Armenian state could be a military, security, economic, and diplomatic partner to the United States—not a proxy for Iran or a puppetwell known. The greater problem today is Armenia:

According to a State Department cable released by Wikileaks, in
2008, U.S. diplomats concluded that Armenia shipped Iran weaponry, which
Iran then used to kill Americans.

In October 2011, a member of Armenia’s Nuclear Energy Organization
told the Iranian press that Tehran had enticed several Armenian nuclear
scientists to work in Iran’s nuclear program.

The Armenian community in the United
States is fortunate to be both vibrant and organized. It is unfortunate
that organizations representing the Armenian Diaspora in the United
States and the congressmen who partner with them do not do more to
encourage change in the Armenian government’s geopolitical behavior.
Certainly, Armenia is between a rock and a hard place. Russia looms
large, both culturally and politically, and Armenians are loathe to
unravel that relationship in an age when no one believes