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Senate Vote On New U.S. Envoy To Armenia Again Delayed

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  • Senate Vote On New U.S. Envoy To Armenia Again Delayed

    SENATE VOTE ON NEW U.S. ENVOY TO ARMENIA AGAIN DELAYED
    By Emil Danielyan

    Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
    Dec 12 2006

    The U.S. Senate has again delayed the confirmation of President
    George W. Bush's choice of the new U.S. ambassador to Armenia over
    his administration's reluctance to term the mass killings of Armenians
    in Ottoman Turkey a genocide.

    The Senate failed to vote on the nomination of career diplomat Richard
    Hoagland before going into winter recess late Monday. This means that
    Bush will have to again nominate Hoagland for the vacant post or to
    propose another candidate to the new, Democrat-controlled chamber
    next month. He also has the option of making a so-called "recess
    appointment" that does not require Senate confirmation.

    The previous U.S. ambassador, John Evans, is believed to have been
    recalled by the Bush administration because of his public description
    of the slaughter of more than one million Ottoman Armenians as
    genocide. Hoagland refused to use the politically sensitive term
    with regard to the 1915-1918 massacres during confirmation hearings
    at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this summer, angering the
    influential Armenian-American community and pro-Armenian members
    of Congress.

    The panel twice delayed a vote on the nomination before endorsing it
    on September 6. Hoagland's confirmation by the full Senate seemed a
    forgone conclusion until a pro-Armenian Democratic senator, Robert
    Menendez of New Jersey, put a "hold" on it a week later.

    Menendez reaffirmed his opposition to Hoagland's appointment after
    securing his reelection in last month's mid-term congressional
    elections that saw both houses of Congress fall under Democrat
    control. He was joined on December 1 by the new Senate Majority Leader
    Harry Reid, a longtime advocate of Armenian issues, in urging Bush
    to propose another nominee.

    The incoming Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,
    Joseph Biden, likewise criticized the Bush administration for its
    refusal to explicitly recognize the Armenian genocide, but eventually
    voted for its ambassador-designate to Armenia. Armenian-American
    sources say Biden is therefore unlikely to block Hoagland's
    appointment.

    The Senate's failure to fill the vacant diplomatic post was welcomed
    by the Armenian National Committee of America, a lobbying organization
    strongly opposed to the Hoagland nomination. "With the adjournment of
    the 109th Congress, we renew our call upon the President to recognize
    that -- as a matter of basic morality -- a genocide denier should
    never represent the United States in Armenia," Ken Hachikian, the
    ANCA chairman, said in a statement.

    Another, less radical advocacy group, the Armenian Assembly of America,
    has also expressed its solidarity with Evans but now seems reluctant
    to drag out the confirmation process. Assembly leaders argue that
    Hoagland has not explicitly denied the Armenian genocide.

    They also believe that the absence of a U.S. ambassador in Yerevan
    is damaging U.S.-Armenian ties.
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