BUSH RENOMINATES CONTROVERSIAL AMBASSADOR DESPITE ARMENIAN PROTESTS

Turkish Daily News , Turkey
Jan 11 2007

Pro-Armenian lawmakers float genocide resolution draft at House to
find maximum number of cosponsors

U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday renominated Richard Hoagland,
viewed by Armenians as a "genocide denier," as ambassador to Yerevan
despite protests by American Armenian groups.

A White House statement said that Hoagland’s name was submitted to
the Senate for approval. His confirmation was blocked by a Senate
Democrat in the last Congress.

Analysts said pro-Armenian senators were expected to continue with
efforts to prevent Hoagland from becoming U.S. ambassador to Armenia.

The controversy erupted last May when Bush fired former U.S. Ambassador
to Yerevan John Evans after the latter classified World War I-era
killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide in violation
of the official U.S. policy.

Bush then nominated career diplomat Hoagland to replace Evans. But
Hoagland declined to qualify the Armenian killings as genocide during
his confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
in June, prompting U.S. Armenians to launch a campaign to block
his appointment.

Despite Armenian efforts, the committee in September approved
Hoagland. But before a floor vote Menendez, a key backer of the
Armenian cause in the Senate, put a hold on his nomination for his
refusal to use the word genocide.

The State Department had hoped that Menendez would lift his veto
after the Nov. 7 congressional elections, won by the Democrats,
but he did not.

Under U.S. law, all senior government officials, including ambassadors,
must win the Senate’s approval, and any senator can indefinitely
block a nomination, however, such moves are rare as they put such
dissenting senators under intense pressure.

Bush needed to resubmit a nomination, because it effectively expired
at the end of the previous Congress in December.

But U.S. Armenians and their backers in Congress continue to oppose
Hoagland. Menendez and the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid, wrote a
letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month asking
the Bush administration to withdraw the nomination.

Also, 97 percent of Armenian Americans oppose the confirmation of
Hoagland as U.S. ambassador to Armenia, according to a new Internet
poll conducted over the past two weeks in nineteen western U.S. states,
the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said on Monday. Most
U.S. Armenians live in the west.

After his renomination, Hoagland again should appear at the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee for a new confirmation hearing.

Bush’s strategy in reappointing Hoagland is not clear, as it remains
extremely difficult to win the Senate’s approval for the diplomat. He
has an option to install Hoagland in a "recess appointment" when
Congress is not working, but this appointment would be limited to
less than two years. Also recess appointments are politically risky
in general.

In a related development at the House of Representatives, pro-Armenian
lawmakers this week began to float a draft resolution for Armenian
genocide recognition among legislators in an effort to gather a
maximum number of cosponsors for the measure.

The resolution, expected to be sponsored by Adam Schiff, a Democrat,
and George Radanovich, a Republican, is due to be formally introduced
at the House within two weeks, congressional sources said.

U.S. Armenian groups have already said they will seek congressional
passage of at least one genocide resolution before April 24, designated
by U.S. presidents as a day of remembrance for the Armenian killings.

Earlier Armenian efforts for genocide recognition failed during the
first six years of Bush’s administration as the then Republican House
leadership prevented a full floor vote for the measures.

Nevertheless, the Armenians’ Democratic allies won a landslide
victory in the Nov. 7 elections, winning control of both the House
of Representatives and the Senate. In addition, the new Democratic
congressional leaderships favor the Armenian position. New House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another Californian Democrat, announced before
the elections that she would back the Armenian genocide’s recognition
in the new Congress.

The Bush government, like earlier U.S. administrations, has declined
to qualify the Armenian killings as genocide and urged Congress to
refrain from passing a genocide resolution, saying such a move would
damage ties with Turkey, a key strategic ally.

Turkey’s public is extremely sensitive on Armenian claims, and
successive Ankara governments have warned Washington that any
congressional recognition of genocide allegations would lead to a
review of the entire U.S.-Turkish relationship.

Egemen Bagiş, a top foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday had talks with two legislators
and some staffers at the House to explain that the passage of a
genocide resolution would greatly harm ties between Turkey and the
United States.