BUSH RESUBMITS NOMINATION FOR U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
AP
Jan 10 2007
President George W. Bush on Tuesday re-nominated as ambassador to
Armenia a career diplomat whose confirmation was blocked by Senate
Democrats in the last Congress.
The White House announced the submission of Richard Hoagland Tuesday,
despite calls by top Democrats to withdraw the nomination because
of his refusal to call the World War I-era killings of Armenians
genocide. Hoagland’s predecessor, John Evans, reportedly had his tour
of duty cut short because, in a social setting, he referred to the
killings as genocide.
Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, blocked the nomination after
Hoagland’s refusal to use the word genocide at his confirmation
hearing in June. Bush needed to resubmit the nomination, because it
effectively expired at the end of the previous Congress in December.
Menendez and the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid, wrote a letter
to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in early December asking
the Bush administration to withdraw the nomination.
The Bush administration has warned that even 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.
Turkey has adamantly denied claims by scholars that its predecessor
Ottoman state killed Armenians in a planned genocide.