APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW US AMBASSADOR AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE (ANALYSIS)
Armen Manvelyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 19 2006
During the past 10 days the struggle around the appointment of a new US
Ambassador to Armenia has been transferred from the Foreign Relations
Committee to the Senate itself. The main question specialists are
concerned with is whether the upper House of the US Congress will
vote or the nomination will be postponed. To remind, Senator Robert
Menendez has declared he is against Hagland’s candidacy, which means
that the discussion of the question may be delayed. Nevertheless,
notwithstanding all this Hoagland may be appointed next US
Ambassador to Armenia with the simple majority of the votes. It
should be mentioned that members of Bush’s party comprise majority
in the Senate, which means 51 votes will be enough for Hoagland’s
appointment. Therefore, it is possible that for the first time in
the history of the Senate the Ambassador will be appointed with the
simple majority of votes, while up to now all Ambassadors have been
confirmed, receiving 100 percent of the ballots. The situation with the
appointment of a new US Ambassador to Armenia is associated with the
activity of Armenian lobbyist organizations in the US – the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Armenian Assembly of
America (AAA), which demand from George Bush to fulfill his promise and
recognize the Armenian Genocide. To remind, the recall of the former
US Ambassador to Armenia John M. Evans by the Department of State was
connected with the fact that the latter properly characterized the
events at the turn of the century as genocide. The Armenian lobbyist
organizations consider that it is immoral to appoint an Ambassador
to Yerevan, who does not recognize the Genocide or avoids using the
term. However, this was the approach Richard Hoagland demonstrated
during the inquiry in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: he
used evasive terms when responding to questions about the events
in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, we can assert that Richard Hoagland
has become the victim of the struggle between George Bush’s policy
on the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian lobbyist organizations and
pro-Armenian Senators. Famous Democrat Senator John Kerry has declared:
"I will vote "no," but I don’t mind Hoagland’s candidacy. I disagree
with the Administration’s policy." We can say that the struggle over
Hoagland’s nomination shows that number one world power, which has
declared itself the main agent of freedom and justice in the world,
should understand at last that it cannot endlessly deny the demand
of the Armenian American community to characterize the massacre of
Armenians as genocide.