Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 21 2008

New US envoy nominee for Armenia defies `genocide’ pressure

A US diplomat nominated for the Armenian ambassadorship has refused to
call killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I "genocide,"
despite pressure from a leading pro-Armenian Democratic senator.

During her confirmation hearing before the US Senate’s Foreign
Relations Committee on Thursday, career diplomat Marie Yovanovitch,
current ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic, responded to a salvo of
questions posed by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, who blocked the
Bush administration’s previous nominee over the issue. Nevertheless,
Yovanovitch rejected the use of the term "genocide" to describe the
early 20th century deaths of Ottoman Armenians out of political
considerations, saying that using the term would contradict the US
administration’s policy on the issue.

Yovanovitch nonetheless used the terms "mass killings, ethnic
cleansing and forced deportation" in her opening testimony to describe
the killings.

Armenia claims Ottoman Turks killed up to 1.5 million Armenians during
World War I, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, and labels the
killings genocide. Turkey says the killings occurred at a time of
civil conflict in which both Armenians and Turks were killed and that
the casualty figures are inflated.

When Menendez asked whether her descriptions matched the definition of
the crime of genocide outlined by the UN Convention on the Punishment
and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, to which the United States is
a party, Yovanovitch said it was the president and State Department
who set the policy for defining historic events. Menendez called it "a
shame" that career foreign service officers had not been able to use
the term, while he described the US administration policy on the use
of the term as "a ridiculous dance."

Back in 2006, then US Ambassador to Armenia 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."

In August, the White House withdrew its nomination of a career
diplomat, Richard Hoagland, after Menendez held up confirmation
hearings because of his refusal to call World War I-era killings of
Armenians a genocide. Late in March, President George W. Bush
nominated another career diplomat, Yovanovitch, to be US ambassador to
Armenia.

Following the Senate hearing, when asked by Today’s Zaman whether he
planned to block Yovano-vitch, Menendez said: "I don’t know. I will
decide after seeing her answers to written questions as well."

US Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama is among
senators who submitted a set of questions for the record in the
importance of official recognition of Armenian killings as "genocide"
was emphasized, Today’s Zaman has learned.

Republican Senator Robert Dole and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who
chaired the hearing on behalf of Democratic Senator Joe Biden, backed
Menendez via using the term "genocide."

While pro-Turkish-thesis senators did not make any verbal or written
statement on the issue, Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, released a
written statement in which she criticized the US policy on the
Armenian issue, especially taking into consideration the fact that the
administration has called killings in Darfur, Sudan, genocide, but
refused to do so in the Armenian case. If she can gain the Senate’s
approval after responding to written questions from the senators,
Yovanovitch will depart for Yerevan in order to take office.

21 June 2008, Saturday
ALÄ° H. ASLAN