Anadolu Agency, Turkey
March4 2005

Double Genocide Correction from US Yerevan Ambassador
By Anadolu News Agency (aa)
Published: Friday 04, 2005
zaman.com

The US Ambassador to Yerevan John Evans has had to apologize twice
for use of the term “genocide” about events in Armenia, once to the
US Administration and once to Turkey.

Evans criticized Washington’s policy last week and said that Armenian
events should be called “genocide” from now on. Top level
administration of US State Department reacted to this statement and
made Evans issue a retraction on the Embassy’s internet site. The
ambassador said in the message that the term “genocide” was his own
evaluation and this did not indicate the US policy, which had not
changed. Evans said that he was sorry for causing a misunderstanding.
But Evans hid the term ‘genocide’ within the message of apology
saying “there is no change in the policy of the US over the Armenian
genocide.” The Turkish ambassador to Washington Faruk Logoglu reacted
to this message and the Washington administration approved Turkey’s
demand and made Evans correct the message of apology. Logoglu
reminded the US State Department that the US does not recognize the
Armenian genocide, but the term was used in the message of apology of
the US Yerevan Ambassador. Logoglu noted that a term that is not
accepted by USA could not be used in a statement of policy.