SENATOR TO VOTE AGAINST BUSH’S AMBASSADOR NOMINEE FOR ARMENIA BECAUSE OF GENOCIDE POSITION
AP Worldstream; Aug 02, 2006
FREDERIC J. FROMMER
Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman said Wednesday he will vote against
President George W. Bush’s selection to become the next ambassador
to Armenia because the nominee refuses to describe the deaths of 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.
According to the Armenian National Committee of America, Coleman
is the first senator to say publicly that he will vote against the
nomination of Ambassador-designate Richard E. Hoagland. Several other
senators have expressed misgivings.
"My problem isn’t with Hoagland," Coleman, a member of Bush’s
Republican Party, said in a telephone interview. "I continue to be
troubled by our policy that refuses to recognize what was a historical
reality."
The Bush administration does not question that Turkish troops killed
or drove from their homes 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915 but
has omitted the word genocide to describe it.
Turkey strongly objects to the use of the word genocide, and U.S.
policy-makers are wary of antagonizing an important strategic NATO
ally.
On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Coleman
serves, postponed a vote on Hoagland’s nomination until next month. The
committee has 10 Republican members and eight Democrats.
Elizabeth Chouldjian, a spokeswoman for the Armenian committee,
said nine of the 18 have misgivings over the Hoagland nomination.
"We welcome Mr. Coleman’s action, because quite frankly, it’s a
question of effectiveness for a U.S. ambassador," she said. "Is
it effective for an ambassador to Armenia to deny the Armenian
genocide? It is effective for him to be taken seriously as a diplomat
in Armenia? The answer is no."
"As someone of the Jewish faith, I bring a heightened sensitivity
to the reality of genocide and mass murder and the importance of
recognizing it for what it is," Coleman said.
"I was brought up believing you never forget the Holocaust, never
forget what happened. And I could not imagine how our ambassador
to Israel could have any effectiveness if he couldn’t recognize
the Holocaust."
In May, the White House announced the recall of the current ambassador
to Armenia, John Evans, two years into the normal three-year diplomatic
term. Last year, Evans told Armenian-Americans, "The Armenian genocide
was the first genocide of the 20th century."
Sixty members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice protesting that Evans was being
punished for his reference to "genocide." In a separate letter,
Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts
demanded an explanation from Rice for Evans’ recall.
"It absolutely was cut short because of that," Coleman said,
referring to Evans’ use of the word genocide. "That I also found to
be troubling. Evans was a
good ambassador.
"To me, it’s almost bizarre diplospeak that you have barred our
ambassadors from using a single word; that in effect you had the
removal of an ambassador who used that single word, genocide, even
though it’s true."
Asked whether Evans was recalled for using the word genocide, State
Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez would only say, "U.S. ambassadors
serve at the pleasure of the president."
At a Foreign Relations Committee hearing in June, senators failed to
get Hoagland to use the word genocide.
"I have not received any kind of written instruction about this,"
Hoagland said at that hearing. "I simply have studied the president’s
policy. I’ve studied the background papers on the policy. And my
responsibility is to support the president."