SENATE VOTE ON NEW U.S. ENVOY TO ARMENIA AGAIN DELAYED
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 12 2006
The U.S. Senate has again delayed the confirmation of President
George W. Bush’s choice of the new U.S. ambassador to Armenia over
his administration’s reluctance to term the mass killings of Armenians
in Ottoman Turkey a genocide.
The Senate failed to vote on the nomination of career diplomat Richard
Hoagland before going into winter recess late Monday. This means that
Bush will have to again nominate Hoagland for the vacant post or to
propose another candidate to the new, Democrat-controlled chamber
next month. He also has the option of making a so-called "recess
appointment" that does not require Senate confirmation.
The previous U.S. ambassador, John Evans, is believed to have been
recalled by the Bush administration because of his public description
of the slaughter of more than one million Ottoman Armenians as
genocide. Hoagland refused to use the politically sensitive term
with regard to the 1915-1918 massacres during confirmation hearings
at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this summer, angering the
influential Armenian-American community and pro-Armenian members
of Congress.
The panel twice delayed a vote on the nomination before endorsing it
on September 6. Hoagland’s confirmation by the full Senate seemed a
forgone conclusion until a pro-Armenian Democratic senator, Robert
Menendez of New Jersey, put a "hold" on it a week later.
Menendez reaffirmed his opposition to Hoagland’s appointment after
securing his reelection in last month’s mid-term congressional
elections that saw both houses of Congress fall under Democrat
control. He was joined on December 1 by the new Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid, a longtime advocate of Armenian issues, in urging Bush
to propose another nominee.
The incoming Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,
Joseph Biden, likewise criticized the Bush administration for its
refusal to explicitly recognize the Armenian genocide, but eventually
voted for its ambassador-designate to Armenia. Armenian-American
sources say Biden is therefore unlikely to block Hoagland’s
appointment.
The Senate’s failure to fill the vacant diplomatic post was welcomed
by the Armenian National Committee of America, a lobbying organization
strongly opposed to the Hoagland nomination. "With the adjournment of
the 109th Congress, we renew our call upon the President to recognize
that — as a matter of basic morality — a genocide denier should
never represent the United States in Armenia," Ken Hachikian, the
ANCA chairman, said in a statement.
Another, less radical advocacy group, the Armenian Assembly of America,
has also expressed its solidarity with Evans but now seems reluctant
to drag out the confirmation process. Assembly leaders argue that
Hoagland has not explicitly denied the Armenian genocide.
They also believe that the absence of a U.S. ambassador in Yerevan
is damaging U.S.-Armenian ties.