OFFICIALS QUESTION THE FATE OF DIPLOMAT
By Tania Chatila, News-Press and Leader
Glendale News Press, CA
March 26 2006
Reports say U.S. Ambassador to Armenia may be removed for genocide
comments.
GLENDALE — Rep. Adam Schiff and two other Congressmen have written
letters or questioned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding
reports that the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia is being removed from
his post over remarks he made last year acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide.
The concerns stem from remarks Ambassador John Marshall Evans made
on a visit to UC Berkeley in February 2005. Evans referred to the
1915 massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of
the Ottoman Turks as a genocide.
The U.S. government does not recognize the killing as a genocide.
“It was more than just mentioning it in passing,” said Aram Hamparian,
executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, which
joined Schiff and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) and Rep. Grace
Napolitano (D-Santa Fe Springs) in writing letters to the White House
regarding the matter. “It was an explicit mention of the events and
why the U.S. government needs to properly recognize those events.”
Since then, Hamparian said the committee has received word that Evans
is being removed from his position because of the statements.
“Our information from friends in the American government and the
Armenian government is that he is being recalled,” Hamparian said. “I
am convinced that he is.”
But Terry Davidson, a State Department spokesman, said that he has
not been recalled.
“Generally, we don’t open up the personnel process, but ambassadors are
appointed by the president and serve at the pleasure of president,”
he said. “Currently, he is the ambassador in Yerevan [Armenia] and
until the president determines otherwise, he’ll be there.”
Despite the State Department’s official insistence on the matter,
the rumor has picked up speed and raised concerns.
Schiff said he proposed several questions to Rice at an open hearing
a few weeks ago, and last week met privately with a deputy secretary
of state and expressed his opposition to a recall.
“I expressed … I thought it would be real a travesty,” Schiff said.
“The American government doesn’t deny the facts of the genocide, and
while the government hasn’t demonstrated the courage to recognize it,
that certainly shouldn’t compound policy by discharging an ambassador
that chose to speak the truth.”
If the move goes through, it would be a setback for the
Armenian-American community, said Armond Aghakhanian, an executive
board member of the Glendale-based Armenian American Chamber of
Commerce.
“He’s been a great ambassador and then you get rid of him just because
of speaking the truth?” he said.
Aghakhanian said Evans’ fate is something that no one wants to admit.
“I think there are plenty of strong indications that [Evans’] tenure
is being cut short because of the comments,” Schiff said.
“It certainly has not been a career-enhancer and might be a
career-ender.”
Evans did not return calls for comment.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
