Senate committee approves nominee for US envoy to Armenia
Agence France Presse — English
September 7, 2006 Thursday 7:07 PM GMT
WASHINGTON, Sept 7 2006 — A US Senate panel on Thursday approved
President George W. Bush’s pick for ambassador to Armenia, despite
an uproar among some lawmakers over the sacking of the previous envoy
after he made comments about Armenian genocide.
The nomination now goes to the full Senate confirmation, following
the 13 to five vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Efforts by the White House to win quick approval for its nominee,
Richard Hoagland, hit a snag after a bipartisan group of senators
balked over the firing of Ambassador John Evans, who had served less
than two years in the post.
Evans was posted to Yerevan in August 2004 for what was supposed to be
a three-year term, but was removed for declaring in February 2005 that
"the Armenian genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century".
He made the statement during meetings with Armenian-American groups.
Several lawmakers voting against Hoagland expressed frustration
with the George W. Bush administration’s refusal to use the word
"genocide" to describe events in Turkey between 1915 and 1917, when
an estimated 1.5 million Armenians are said to have been killed or
died after being forcibly driven from their homes.
"I think this vote is bigger and more important than just Ambassador
Hoagland and that’s why I intend to vote no," US Senator John Kerry
said a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just before
the vote.
Kerry accused the administration of caving in to pressure from Turkey.
"There’s sort of a game being played here," he said, accusing the
Bush administration of "revisionism" on the issue.
"The Armenian genocide was a genocide," Kerry said.
The Democratic senator added: "For us to allow an ambassador to be
recalled because he uttered the word ‘genocide’ is to kowtow, it’s
to cave in, to those who change history."
"We’re not going to allow revisionism … We honor history and we
honor the truth."
Armenians throughout the world have pushed for official recognition of
those killings as genocide, but Ankara argues that 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in an internal conflict sparked by
attempts by Armenians to win independence for eastern Anatolia and
secure assistance for their bid from Russia — Turkey’s age-old
nemesis.