Turkish Daily News
June 19 2008
The failure to appoint an ambassador to Armenia due to Senate
opposition has forced the US administration to use a two-pronged ploy
where the new ambassadorial nominee for Armenia can avoid delving into
the dangerous ‘genocide’ issue by shifting the possible questions to
her colleague destined to go to Turkey
UMÄ°T ENGÄ°NSOY WASHINGTON – Turkish Daily News
About this time two years ago Richard Hoagland, the U.S. ambassador
to Tajikistan, whom President George W. Bush wanted to send to the
same post in Armenia, was sweating during his confirmation hearing
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ultimately, Hoagland’s
refusal to use the "g-word" cost him the chance to take up residence
in Yerevan.
Will the same fate today befall Marie Yovanovitch, the White House
official nominated for the job who goes before the same panel? Maybe
yes, maybe no. But an apparent "two ambassador strategy" devised by
the U.S. State Department is set to play out and may save the day.
Two years ago, pro-Armenian senators relentlessly pressured Hoaglan
to characterize the World War I-era Armenian killings in the Ottoman
empire as "genocide." Hoagland tried to sidestep the questions by
sticking to the official U.S. position that avoids using the g-word.
Hoagland still won the committee’s approval, but later, before his
confirmation came to the Senate floor, Senator Robert Menendez,
a New Jersey Democrat championing the Armenian cause, placed a hold
on Hoagland’s nomination, effectively killing his chances to become
the U.S. ambassador to Yerevan. Menendez, and most U.S. Armenians,
say the United States should not be represented in Armenia by a
"genocide denier."
Under American law, all senior administration officials, including
ambassadors, must win the Senate’s approval to take up their posts. But
even one single senator has a right to block a nomination, though
such vetoes are rare because they normally put the dissenting senator
under enormous pressure.
In this case Menendez has suffered no visible side effects from his
hold on Hoagland, amid an extraordinary show of hostility between
Bush’s outgoing Republican administration and the Democratic-controlled
Congress.
Eventually, the White House had to withdraw Hoagland’s nomination
last year after it became clear that Menendez would not lift his veto.
Does history repeat itself?
Hoagland’s doomed nomination came after a May 2006 incident in which
the White House fired John Evans, the previous U.S. ambassador to
Armenia, in the wake of remarks that qualified the Armenian killings
as genocide, in violation of the official U.S. policy. The United
States has had no ambassador in Yerevan for more than two years,
and is being represented there by its deputy chief of mission.
Two years later Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan
whom Bush has nominated this time for Armenia, will appear at her
confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today
to be grilled by pro-Armenian senators.
Menendez has already threatened to block Yovanovitch’s nomination if
the new nominee, like Hoagland, declines to characterize the Armenian
killings as genocide. If, on the other hand, Yovanovitch uses the
g-word, it will mean a categorical change in official U.S. policy
and will risk a collapse in the whole U.S.-Turkish relationship.
And there is the separate case of James Jeffrey, a senior diplomat whom
Bush has recently nominated for the ambassadorial post in Ankara to
replace outgoing Ross Wilson. Like Wilson’s predecessor, Eric Edelman,
now the Pentagon’s number three official, Jeffrey is a high profile
figure in the Bush administration.
Originally an army officer, Jeffrey has had a long career at the State
Department. From 2002 to 2004 he was the ambassador to Albania, then
worked in Baghdad as the number two U.S. diplomat. On his return to
Washington, he became Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s top Iraq
adviser and is presently serving as Bush’s deputy national security
adviser. Jeffrey’s confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee should come later this year.
Will the tactic work?
To relieve Yovanovitch from the relentless questioning from
pro-Armenian senators, the State Department has devised a trick, one
source said. Under the plan, Yovanovitch and Jeffrey are expected to
attend today’s hearing together.
When the senators ask genocide-related questions, Yovanovitch can
turn and say, "These are matters that need to be addressed by my
colleague heading to Turkey," according to the source.
As the Turkish Daily News went to press yesterday, it was not clear
if that plan would remain in place and, if so, if it will work at all.
An analyst here familiar with the Armenian-Turkish conflict and its
repercussions in U.S. politics said he believed both Yovanovitch and
Jeffrey would face major confirmation problems at the Senate.
"I don’t think this trick, if used, will work. Menendez, although he
is not a committee member, and maybe some other senators probably
will not be content with evasive answers, and Yovanovitch is also
likely to face Hoagland’s fate," said the analyst, who asked not to
be named, qualifying the matter as a sensitive issue.
"In Jeffrey’s case, most Democrats view the man as a key member of the
Bush administration, and some Democratic senators may seek to block
this nomination by the outgoing Republican president whom they hate,"
the analyst said.
A genocide resolution came close to passage in the U.S. House of
Representatives last fall, and only strong Turkish warnings that such
a move will destroy Turkish-American and the Bush administration’s
focused efforts caused it to be shelved.
Obama’s letter:
But next year similar resolutions are expected to follow on both
the House and Senate sides, and what is worse for Turkey is that
Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, backs
the Armenian position.
Obama reiterated Tuesday his support for the Armenians, saying the
United States should recognize the Armenian killings of the early
last century as genocide.
"I share your view that the United States must recognize the events of
1915 to 1923, carried out by the Ottoman Empire, as genocide. As you
know, this resulted in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians,
of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed," Obama said in
a letter he sent to Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National
Committee of America, or ANCA, the largest U.S. Armenian group.
"We must recognize this tragic reality. The Bush administration’s
refusal to do so is inexcusable, and I will continue to speak out in
an effort to move the administration to change its position," he said,
according to an ANCA statement.
Obama pledged earlier this year that if elected president in the Nov. 4
elections, he would recognize the Armenian killings as genocide,
though he did not specifically reiterate this pledge in his latest
letter to Hachikian.
–Boundary_(ID_5MFKFxO5uFRxxXsersH5gA) —
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress