US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA RECALLED EARLIER FOR USING EXPRESSION “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”

Today, Azerbaijan
March 7 2006

Pro-Armeninan “The California Courier” newspaper writes that the
cause is that American ambassador mentioned that genocide policy was
pursued against Armenians in the period of the Ottoman Empire.

John Evans has already informed the Armenian authorities that his
diplomatic mission is over earlier, APA informs.

The US Senate has defined a new ambassador to Armenia. He is the US
ambassador to Tajikistan Richard Hoagland.

A year earlier during the meeting with Armenian community in San
Francisco, John Evans referring to the so-called “Armenian genocide”
said that it can be recognized.

“I regard the event as an act of genocide. No American official has
ever denied this fact. I think it will not bring honor to Americans to
play with words concerning this issue. I know that everything should
be called by their names. However, the US policy has not changed. We
have military relations with Turkey in the framework of NATO. The
Armenian genocide was the first genocide that was committed in the
20th century. I assure you that we shall seriously deal with this
issue,” John Evans said.

Seeing that his statements caused serious dissatisfactions, John Evans
told a news conference in the US Embassy, Yerevan, that his statements
were unofficial, and did not represent official stance of his country.

“In my meeting with Armenian community, I said that US stance
concerning the Armenian tragedy remains unchanged. I used the
expression of “genocide” but this expression belongs to me -John Evans
only not a politician. However, I must admit that my statements were
not needed that time,” he said.

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