GEORGE BUSH ASKS TO APPROVE AMBASSADOR TO YEREVAN A DIPLOMAT WHO DOES NOT RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE
Yerevan, January 10. ArmInfo. Yesterday, the President of USA George
Bush has introduced again the candidacy of Richard Hoagland for the
post of Ambassador of USA to Armenia for consideration of the Congress
despite his public refusal to recognize the murders of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire during the World War I as an Armenian Genocide. The
democrats could block his approval in the post of Ambassador in the
previous Senate staff.
The senators from the Democratic party of USA, Harry Read, a Leader
of democrats in the Senate, and Robert Menendez had earlier asked the
State Department to take the candidacy of Hoagland off the voting. In
June, 2006, during the hearings on his approval on the post of
Ambassador, Hoagland refused to call the extermination of Armenians a
Genocide. It is considered that the previous Ambassador, John Evans,
had lost his post just because of using the word "Genocide", during
one of receptions, with respect to the events of the beginning of XX
century. Washington considers that even a discussion of the Genocide
issue in the Congress seriously harms the country’s relations with
one of the key partners in the Near East and in Asia Minor.