The New Anatolian
Sept 2 2006

Evans unrepentant on ‘genocide’ remarks

The New Anatolian / Ankara

John Evans, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said he is
leaving his post without retracting his claim that Armenians suffered
a "genocide" at the hands of the Ottomans, the Azeri Press Agency
(APA) reported on Friday.

"I assessed the 1915 ‘Young Turkish’ government’s actions against
Armenians as genocide and I do not retract this statement," said
Evans in his last press conference in Yerevan on Thursday before
leaving for the U.S.

He said he has received a "nice note" from Bush that thanked him for
his work in Armenia. He also commended Bush’s choice of the next U.S.
ambassador to Yerevan, Richard Hoagland, as a "consummate
professional."

Evans was recalled from Armenia this March reportedly for his
statement that Armenians suffered genocide in the Ottoman Empire

"The Armenian genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century,"
Evans declared during a February 2005 meeting with Armenian-American
activists in California.

But later on, seeing this statement caused great controversy, Evans
told a press conference that his words were unofficially stated and
do not represent the official position of his state.

"This _expression belongs to me only, not a politician," he said.

Richard Hoagland, currently the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan, has
not been yet confirmed by the U.S Senate as the new ambassador to
Armenia.

The Armenian lobby is trying to hold up the appointment of Hoagland,
for declining to describe what happened in 1915 as a "genocide."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has delayed its consideration
of Hoagland’s appointment because of the controversy. At a June
confirmation hearing, senators grilled Hoagland, who said he wanted
to avoid "getting stuck in the past and vocabulary."

The Bush administration has described the events in Ottoman Turkey
during World War I as "horrific" and a "tragedy," but not as
genocide. Turkey, an important US ally, strongly objects to that
description, calling the deaths and deportations the outcome of a
civil conflict with bloodshed on both sides. Ankara has recently
suggested that it and Yerevan establish a joint commission of
historians to study all the historical archives and reveal the truth
about the events of 1915, but did not receive a positive response.