WHITE HOUSE RESUBMITS CONTORVERSIAL NOMINATION FOR AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Jan 9 2007

WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush on Tuesday re-nominated as
ambassador to Armenia a career diplomat whose confirmation was blocked
by Senate Democrats in the last Congress.

The White House announced the submission of Richard Hoagland Tuesday,
despite calls by top Democrats to withdraw the nomination because of
his refusal to call the World War I-era killings of Armenians genocide.

Hoagland’s predecessor, John Evans, reportedly had his tour of duty
cut short because, in a social setting, he referred to the killings
as genocide.

Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, blocked the nomination after
Hoagland’s refusal to use the word genocide at his confirmation
hearing in June. Bush needed to resubmit the nomination, because it
effectively expired at the end of the previous Congress in December.

Menendez and the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid, wrote a letter
to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in early December asking
the Bush administration to withdraw the nomination.

The Bush administration has warned that even congressional debate on
the genocide question could damage relations with Turkey, a moderate
Muslim nation that is a NATO member and an important strategic ally.

Turkey has adamantly denied claims by scholars that its predecessor
Ottoman state killed Armenians in a planned genocide.