SENATE PANEL APPROVES NOMINEE FOR AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
George Gedda
AP Worldstream
Sep 07, 2006
A Senate panel on Thursday approved the nomination of career diplomat
Richard Hoagland to be ambassador to Armenia, despite objections by
some senators to the Bush administration’s refusal to classify the
deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as "genocide."
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote was 13-5. The nomination
will now be considered by the full Senate.
At his June 28 confirmation hearing, Hoagland declined to use the
word genocide to describe the 1915 killings, which occurred during
the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.
The tour of duty of the current ambassador, John Evans, reportedly
was curtailed because he referred to the killings as a genocide in
defiance of administration policy.
Turkey strongly objects to any such characterization. U.S. policymakers
are wary of antagonizing Turkey, an important NATO ally.
Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed in an organized genocidal campaign by Ottoman Turks, and have
pushed for recognition of the killings as genocide around the world.
Committee Chairman Richard Lugar said Hoagland’s nomination should
be sent to the Senate for final approval.
The Senate, he said, "should not withhold confirmation based on
disagreements with administration policy." It would be "troubling"
if such a precedent were to be set.
He pointed out that Armenia is an important country with borders on
Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Rejection of Hoagland would mean that
months would pass before an alternate ambassador could be found.
Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, said he could not "be in a position
to support a nominee who is not in a position to recognize a historical
reality."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, said she could not support the
nomination.
"I will today call it the Armenian genocide," she said. "There is no
doubt about what happened. I believe is calling things by their names."