WILL YOVANOVITCH COME?

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31 March, 2008

President George Bush has nominated a career diplomat to be
U.S. ambassador to Armenia. Bush announced the nomination of Marie
Yovanovitch, who is currently ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic.

In August, the White House withdrew its nomination of another career
diplomat, Richard Hoagland, after Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez held
up confirmation hearings. Hoagland had refused to call the World War
I-era killings of Armenians genocide.

The post of the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia has been vacant since
September of 2006.

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