NOMINEE REFUSES TO CALL KILLINGS GENOCIDE
By Desmond Butler
Associated Press
Jun 19, 7:11 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. diplomat nominated to be ambassador to
Armenia came under intense questioning Thursday at her confirmation
hearing over the U.S. policy not to label as genocide the World War
I-era killings of huge numbers of Armenians.
Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, who blocked the Bush administration’s
previous nominee over the issue, told The Associated Press that he had
not decided whether also to block career diplomat Marie Yovanovitch.
Menendez questioned Yovanovitch in prosecutorial style during a hearing
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the facts surrounding
the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Yovanovitch, current
ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic, explained administration policy,
but would not comment whether she believed genocide had occurred.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed,
an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of
the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide,
saying the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims
of civil war and unrest.
"It is a shame that career foreign service officers have to be
brought before the committee and find difficulty in acknowledging
historical facts," Menendez said. "It is a ridiculous dance that the
administration is doing over the use of the term genocide."
The administration has warned that even a congressional debate on
the genocide question could damage relations with Turkey, a moderate
Muslim nation that is a NATO member and an important strategic ally.
In August, the White House withdrew its nomination of career diplomat
Richard Hoagland after Menendez held up his confirmation through a
Senate procedure.
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.