Associated Press Worldstream
January 10, 2007 Wednesday 11:26 PM GMT

Democratic senator again blocks nomination of envoy to Armenia

A Democratic senator on Wednesday again blocked the nomination of a
career diplomat to be U.S. ambassador to Armenia and urged the Bush
administration to submit another candidate.

Sen. Robert Menendez placed a hold on the nomination of Richard
Hoagland for the second time because of Hoagland’s refusal to call
the World War I-era killings of Armenians genocide.

A hold on nominations is a parliamentary privilege accorded to U.S.
senators.

Menendez said that "the State Department and the Bush administration
are just flat-out wrong in their refusal to recognize the Armenian
genocide. It is well past time to drop the euphemisms, the wink-wink,
nod-nod brand of foreign diplomacy that overlooks heinous atrocities
around the world."

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

Menendez blocked Hoagland’s nomination after he refused to use the
word genocide at his confirmation hearing in June.

The Bush administration resubmitted Hoagland’s name Tuesday because
it effectively expired at the end of the previous Congress in
December.

The administration has warned that even a 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.