Senate Approves Bush’s Pick For U.S. Armenia Envoy

All Headline News
Sept 7 2006
Senate Approves Bush’s Pick For U.S. Armenia Envoy
September 7, 2006 7:58 p.m. EST
Shaveta Bansal – All Headline News Staff Writer
Washington D.C. (AHN) – The U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations
Committee, on Thursday, in a 13-5 vote approved President George W.
Bush’s choice of the new U.S. ambassador to Armenia, despite strong
objections voiced by several members of the panel. The nomination, if
endorsed by the full Senate, will entitle U.S. Ambassador to
Tajikistan Richard Hoagland to take over from fellow diplomat John
Evans, who had been withdrawn by the administration after he
described Turkey’s 1915-1923 assault on Armenia as genocide.
Some of the committee members said that the nomination of Hoagland
should be rejected to protest the administration decision to recall
John Evans in May after he asserted the killing of 1.5 million
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide.
The Bush administration has avoided using the term for the massacre
in order not to offend Turkey, which Washington holds up as a model
of democracy among Islamic countries.
“In Darfur we are witnessing the first genocide of the 21st century
and the Bush administration called it that,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer,
a California Democrat. Boxer said she could not support Hoagland
“until we call the first genocide of the 20th century by its rightful
name.”
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, said no one
was questioning Hoagland’s credentials, adding that rejecting a
qualified nominee “because of concerns of U.S. policy toward that
country would set a troubling precedent.”
While Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities were committed, it has
contended that it had no intention to eradicate Armenians so it was
not genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress