EMBASSY "DISAPPOINTED" WITH ARMENIAN DIASPORA REP’S REMARKS ON US ENVOY

Mediamax news agency
15 Mar 07

Yerevan, 15 March: The US embassy informed today about its "deep
disappointment" in connection with the statement of the executive
director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Aram
Hambarian, made in Yerevan on 13 March.

Mediamax reports that the statement reads that "his remarks were
a wilful distortion of reality and have no place in any serious
discussion about policy differences".

"Mr Hambarian’s comments are particularly out of place in Yerevan,
where the government of Armenia has already signalled its readiness to
work with Ambassador [Richard] Hoagland. Neither Ambassador Hoagland
nor the administration has ever denied the mass murders and forced
exile of over 1.5m Armenians that occurred in the final years of the
Ottoman Empire.

"During the hearing on his approval [as US ambassador to Armenia]
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 28 June 2006,
Ambassador Hoagland specifically said, on the record: `No one in
the administration has ever denied the events.’ He has read broadly
the history of the period. However, the administration and therefore
Ambassador-designate Hoagland, does not use the word `genocide’ to
describe these events", the statement of the US embassy in Armenia
reads.