EX-KARABAKH MEDIATOR TO RUN U.S. EMBASSY IN ARMENIA
By Ruben Meloyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
June 27 2007
The United States has named a new, more high-ranking diplomat to run
its embassy in Yerevan in the continuing absence of a U.S. ambassador
to Armenia, it emerged on Wednesday.
A U.S. embassy official said Rudolf Perina will take over from Anthony
Godfrey, the deputy chief of mission, as U.S. charge d’affaires in
Yerevan next month.
Unlike Godfrey, Perina has the diplomatic rank of ambassador and
has served as U.S. ambassador to former Yugoslavia and Moldova in
the past. He is better known in Armenia as the U.S. co-chair of the
OSCE’s Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh from 2001-2004.
"Rudolf Perina will arrive in Armenia on July 10," Tom Mittnacht, head
of the U.S. embassy’s public affairs section, told RFE/RL. "He has
the rank of ambassador but is coming to Armenia not as an ambassador
but as a charge d’affaires."
Mittnacht said another senior American diplomat, Richard Hoagland,
remains President George W. Bush’s ambassador designate to Armenia.
Hoagland’s congressional confirmation continues to be blocked by a
pro-Armenian member of the U.S. Senate over his failure to describe as
genocide the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. Senator
Robert Menendez pledged last April to keep his so-called "hold"
on the ambassadorial appointment.
The last U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, is believed to have
been recalled by Washington last year for publicly referring to the
1915-1918 slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
as the first genocide of the 20th century. The Bush administration
refuses to use the politically sensitive term with regard to the mass
killings for fear of antagonizing Turkey, a key U.S. ally.
"By appointing Ambassador Perina as charge d’affaires, the State
Department took into account his rich experience and knowledge of
Armenia as well as his personal and business ties with top Armenian
leaders, which will contribute to continuity in our bilateral relations
with Armenia," Mittnacht said.