ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA: IT IS IMPORTANT TO CHANGE US POLICY TOWARDS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE INSTEAD OF HAMPERING APPOINTMENT OF AMBASSADOR

Regnum, Russia
Feb 8 2007

The Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) speaks against absence of a
US ambassador in Armenia, AAA Country Director for Armenia and NKR
Arpi Vartanian announced at a news conference today. She noted that no
matter who would be the ambassador – Richard Hoagland or anyone else:
anyway, it will be better than nobody.

Speaking about ex-US Ambassador John Evans, who, unexpectedly for
his country, called Armenian Genocide a genocide, Arpi Vartanian
noted that in this situation Evans’s position sounded contrary to
the official position of the US presidential administration, which
resulted in recalling the ambassador.

Speaking on the procedure of appointing a US ambassador to Armenia,
the country director said that, in accordance with the procedure,
the US president can appoint a candidature of the ambassador by
himself during congressional vacations, however, the procedure is
less important than appointing the ambassador by the Senate. "In
this connection I find it necessary to abstain from hampering the
appointment process and spare no effort to change the US policy in
the question of the Armenian Genocide," she said. In this connection,
Arpi Vartanian noted that recently reports on the Genocide and not only
the Armenian Genocide started appearing more and more frequently in US
media, which is a good start, she believes. Despite AAA disagreements
with other Armenian lobbying organizations, their common goal is
Armenia’s prosperous future, Arpi Vartanian concluded.