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Press Release
ANC-PAC Praises Senator Boxer For Challenging Bush Administration’s
Recall of Armenian Ambassador Hoagland Questions Whether There Was Intent
to Destroy Armenian People in 1915
September 26, 2006
Los Angeles, CA – The Armenian National Committee – Political Action
Committee issued a statement this week praising U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
(D-CA) for challenging the Bush Administration’s decision to recall
Ambassador John Marshall Evans from his post in Yerevan, Armenia. Most
recently, Senator Boxer voted against the nomination of a new U.S. Ambassador
to Armenia as a result of unanswered questions about the recall of John
Evans.
Ambassador Evans was directed by the Department of State to return
prematurely to the United States as a result of remarks he made in February
of 2005 acknowledging the Armenian Genocide at a community forum in the San
Francisco-Bay area. President George W. Bush declared his intent to nominate
Richard Hoagland on May 25, 2006 to replace Ambassador Evans.
"Senator Boxer has been a major force in exposing the State Department’s
indefensible decision to fire Ambassador Evans for openly and honestly
discussing the Armenian Genocide. The Senator’s courage in challenging a
bankrupt policy of denying the Armenian Genocide is deeply appreciated by the
over 700,000 Armenian Americans who live and work in the State of
California," remarked ANC-PAC Chairman Leonard Manoukian.
On June 28, 2006 Senator Boxer submitted a series of questions to
Ambassador Richard Hoagland, whose previous post was in Tajikistan.
Specifically, the Senator asked Hoagland why the Armenian Genocide does not
meet the definition of genocide. In reply to this question, the
Ambassador-designee cited the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and made the case that the Armenian
Genocide did not meet the "intent" clause of the convention. In the words of
Hoagland, the Turkish Ottoman authorities had no "specific intent to destroy,
in whole or in substantial part" the Armenian people in 1915.
In another affront to the Armenian American community, Hoagland dismissed
the need to refer accurately to the murder of 1.5 million Armenians as
genocide as a "legal debate over a technical definition." The
Ambassador-designee’s reply was in response to a question posed by Senator
Boxer about the need to abide by the President’s National Security Strategy
which has, as an aim, the goal of preventing genocide.
"Our organization is deeply disturbed with the insensitive reply
Ambassador Hoagland provided to Senator Boxer’s question about why he
believes the Armenian Genocide does not meet the State Department’s own
definition of genocide," explained Manoukian. "Mr. Hoagland is either ill
informed on the history of the Armenian Genocide or willfully provided an
inaccurate reply to Senator Boxer’s query. In either case, providing such an
argument, that the Armenian Genocide was not committed with intent to destroy
the Armenian people, ought to give pause to all people of good will about his
qualifications to be posted in Yerevan to represent the American government,"
he added.
The ANC-PAC is a non-partisan federally registered political action
committee established to support campaign committees for Members of Congress
who share the values of the Armenian American community. The ANC-PAC is at
the forefront of efforts to ensure that the voice of the Armenian American
community is clearly heard in our nation’s capital. The ANC-PAC continues a
century old tradition of Armenian Americans engagement on the public policy
issues facing national political leaders, both in the U.S. Congress and the
White House.
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