Bush's Nominee for new ambassador to Armenia has Publicly Denied the Genocide.

[Kharpert]

Why do you ask?

[phantom]

Those who voted for the Ambassador made it very clear that this ambassador was assigned as to not offend Turkey, which should make it very clear that Armenia's choice of an ambassador is comprimised by Turkey's complaints and grievances. Whether he is a competent ambassador is besides the point; he gives the impression of a wavering alliegance to Armenia which we don't approve of, and we don't think that the United States should condone in its embassies.

Kharpert, I believe his allegience is supposed to be to the U.S., not Armenia. In any case, as offensive as this situation is, I think it is better for the Armenian nation if there is a U.S. ambassador rather than no ambassador at all.

[spicerisk]

Please go and help the poverty in Armenia.

[Joseph]

Please go and help the poverty in Armenia.

We already do. Thanks for caring!

[Joseph]

American Senators Insist on New Candidacy for Ambassador in Armenia
12.12.2006 16:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) today called on President George W. Bush to propose a new candidacy to serve as US Ambassador in Armenia instead of Richard Hoagland, who was blocked by the US Senate, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). Senators Menendez and Reid, citing the growing Hoagland controversy, recommended, in a December 1, 2006 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that the best way to move this process forward would be for "the President to withdraw his nomination of Richard Hoagland as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia and to propose a new candidate to serve in this important position." In their words, the tough stand of the Armenian community in the USA against Hoagland’s designation will serve United State’s national interests.

"Armenian Americans welcome the principled stand taken today by Senators Menendez and Reid in defense of our nation's fundamental commitment to recognizing, preventing and punishing genocide," said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian. "We deeply appreciate their leadership and value their understanding of the simple truth that a denier of the Armenian Genocide cannot effectively promote U.S. interests or American values in Armenia - a country that rose from the ashes of Turkey's brutal campaign of extermination and exile." He said.

It is worth mentioning that the new Congress of the USA begins its work in January. In the new Congress the majority belongs to Democrats, who are against George Bush’s policy in denying the Armenian Genocide. According to the US Constitution, the president can either present a new candidacy or again offer Richard Hoagland’s candidacy. He also can seize the opportunity of break in Congress’ works and designate the Ambassador in Armenia without confirmation in Senate. In this case the senators will no have veto power.

[Joseph]

American Senators Insist on New Candidacy for Ambassador in Armenia
12.12.2006 16:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) today called on President George W. Bush to propose a new candidacy to serve as US Ambassador in Armenia instead of Richard Hoagland, who was blocked by the US Senate, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). Senators Menendez and Reid, citing the growing Hoagland controversy, recommended, in a December 1, 2006 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that the best way to move this process forward would be for "the President to withdraw his nomination of Richard Hoagland as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia and to propose a new candidate to serve in this important position." In their words, the tough stand of the Armenian community in the USA against Hoagland’s designation will serve United State’s national interests.

"Armenian Americans welcome the principled stand taken today by Senators Menendez and Reid in defense of our nation's fundamental commitment to recognizing, preventing and punishing genocide," said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian. "We deeply appreciate their leadership and value their understanding of the simple truth that a denier of the Armenian Genocide cannot effectively promote U.S. interests or American values in Armenia - a country that rose from the ashes of Turkey's brutal campaign of extermination and exile." He said.

It is worth mentioning that the new Congress of the USA begins its work in January. In the new Congress the majority belongs to Democrats, who are against George Bush’s policy in denying the Armenian Genocide. According to the US Constitution, the president can either present a new candidacy or again offer Richard Hoagland’s candidacy. He also can seize the opportunity of break in Congress’ works and designate the Ambassador in Armenia without confirmation in Senate. In this case the senators will no have veto power.

Change in U.S. Congress boosts prospects for Armenian genocide resolution

The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 26, 2006

WASHINGTON
With Democrats taking control of the U.S. Congress, prospects have increased that lawmakers will approve a resolution recognizing the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide — despite the objections of President George W. Bush.

The shift in Congress also dims the likelihood that the Bush administration can break a deadlock over the president'ss nominee for ambassador to Armenia, Richard Hoagland. Senate Democrats have blocked Hoagland's nomination because of his refusal to call the killings a genocide.

The matters before Congress highlight how the deaths of the 1.5 million Armenians almost a century ago remain a sensitive international issue today. 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 state, the Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide. The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the empire's collapse.

After French lawmakers voted in October to make it a crime to deny that the killings were a genocide, Turkey said it would suspend military relations with France.

In Washington, Armenian-American groups have been pressing for years for a resolution on the genocide issue. The House of Representatives' International Relations Committee last year endorsed two resolutions classifying the killings as genocide. But the House leadership, controlled by Bush's Republican Party, prevented a vote by the full chamber.

With Democrats taking over the House, the top leader will be Nancy Pelosi, who has supported the genocide legislation. A spokesman for Pelosi, Drew Hamill, says she'll continue to support the resolutions.

"I think we have the best chance probably in a decade to get an Armenian genocide resolution passed," said Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, a top advocate of the resolutions.

The genocide question was the key issue as the Senate considered the ambassadorial nomination of Hoagland to replace John Evans, who reportedly had his tour of duty cut short because, in a social setting, he referred to the killings as genocide.

Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, blocked the nomination over Hoagland's refusal to use the word genocide at his confirmation hearing in June. With Democrats taking over the Senate, it will be even more difficult now for the Bush administration to circumvent Menendez's objections.

Early this month, Menendez and the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking the Bush administration to withdraw the nomination.

But an administration official responded in a letter to Menendez that it was continuing to back Hoagland.

"Despite some claims to the contrary, neither Ambassador-designate Hoagland nor the administration has ever minimized or denied the fact or the extent of the annihilation and forced exile of as many as 1.5. million ethnic Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns wrote. The letter was provided to The Associated Press by a congressional aide, who requested anonymity because the administration had not agreed to its release.

"It would be a shame for the entire Foreign Service should Ambassador-designate Hoagland, an experienced diplomat with a distinguished record of service, be denied confirmation due to past disagreements over Ambassador Evans."

[Joseph]

WHILE US EX-AMBASSADOR IN ARMENIA "CALLS A SPADE A SPADE," CANDIDATURE OF NEW AMBASSADOR IS BLOCKED BY SENATE

Regnum, Russia
Jan 11 2007

Statement of US ex-ambassador to Armenia John Evans on the Armenian
Genocide "was not a slip of the tongue." He said that in an interview
to Los Angeles Times. "I knew it was not the policy of the United
States" to use the word "genocide," Evans said. "Ninety years is a long
time. At some point you have to call a spade a spade," John Evans said.

It worth mentioning, at a meeting with members of the Armenian
community in San Francisco on February 19, 2005, John Evans said:
"I will today call it the Armenian genocide." Later, on February 28,
2005, speaking at the US embassy to Armenia, John Evans elaborated
on his idea of February 19. The diplomat is quoted as saying by
PanArmenian.Net that he used the word "genocide" and it was his
personal point of view not as of a governmental official.

It is worth mentioning that after John Evans was recalled from the
post of the US ambassador to Armenia, no new ambassador has been
announced yet. The candidature of Richard Hoagland introduced by the
president was turned down by Senator Robert Menendez after Hoagland
made statements denying the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire
in 1915 that stirred negative reaction from public in Armenia as well
as in the Armenian Diaspora particularly in the United States.

[Hovik]

Bush renominates controversial ambassador despite Armenian protests

Bush renominates controversial ambassador despite Armenian protests
Thursday, January 11, 2007


Pro-Armenian lawmakers float genocide resolution draft at House to find maximum number of cosponsors

ÜMİT ENGİNSOY
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News


U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday renominated Richard Hoagland, viewed by Armenians as a "genocide denier," as ambassador to Yerevan despite protests by American Armenian groups.

A White House statement said that Hoagland's name was submitted to the Senate for approval. His confirmation was blocked by a Senate Democrat in the last Congress.

Analysts said pro-Armenian senators were expected to continue with efforts to prevent Hoagland from becoming U.S. ambassador to Armenia.

The controversy erupted last May when Bush fired former U.S. Ambassador to Yerevan John Evans after the latter classified World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide in violation of the official U.S. policy.

Bush then nominated career diplomat Hoagland to replace Evans. But Hoagland declined to qualify the Armenian killings as genocide during his confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June, prompting U.S. Armenians to launch a campaign to block his appointment.

Despite Armenian efforts, the committee in September approved Hoagland. But before a floor vote Menendez, a key backer of the Armenian cause in the Senate, put a hold on his nomination for his refusal to use the word genocide.

The State Department had hoped that Menendez would lift his veto after the Nov. 7 congressional elections, won by the Democrats, but he did not.

Under U.S. law, all senior government officials, including ambassadors, must win the Senate's approval, and any senator can indefinitely block a nomination, however, such moves are rare as they put such dissenting senators under intense pressure.

Bush needed to resubmit a nomination, because it effectively expired at the end of the previous Congress in December.

But U.S. Armenians and their backers in Congress continue to oppose Hoagland. Menendez and the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid, wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month asking the Bush administration to withdraw the nomination.

Also, 97 percent of Armenian Americans oppose the confirmation of Hoagland as U.S. ambassador to Armenia, according to a new Internet poll conducted over the past two weeks in nineteen western U.S. states, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said on Monday. Most U.S. Armenians live in the west.

After his renomination, Hoagland again should appear at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a new confirmation hearing.

Bush's strategy in reappointing Hoagland is not clear, as it remains extremely difficult to win the Senate's approval for the diplomat. He has an option to install Hoagland in a "recess appointment" when Congress is not working, but this appointment would be limited to less than two years. Also recess appointments are politically risky in general.

In a related development at the House of Representatives, pro-Armenian lawmakers this week began to float a draft resolution for Armenian genocide recognition among legislators in an effort to gather a maximum number of cosponsors for the measure.

The resolution, expected to be sponsored by Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and George Radanovich, a Republican, is due to be formally introduced at the House within two weeks, congressional sources said.

U.S. Armenian groups have already said they will seek congressional passage of at least one genocide resolution before April 24, designated by U.S. presidents as a day of remembrance for the Armenian killings.

Earlier Armenian efforts for genocide recognition failed during the first six years of Bush's administration as the then Republican House leadership prevented a full floor vote for the measures.

Nevertheless, the Armenians' Democratic allies won a landslide victory in the Nov. 7 elections, winning control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In addition, the new Democratic congressional leaderships favor the Armenian position. New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another Californian Democrat, announced before the elections that she would back the Armenian genocide's recognition in the new Congress.

The Bush government, like earlier U.S. administrations, has declined to qualify the Armenian killings as genocide and urged Congress to refrain from passing a genocide resolution, saying such a move would damage ties with Turkey, a key strategic ally.

Turkey's public is extremely sensitive on Armenian claims, and successive Ankara governments have warned Washington that any congressional recognition of genocide allegations would lead to a review of the entire U.S.-Turkish relationship.

Egemen Bağış, a top foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Tuesday had talks with two legislators and some staffers at the House to explain that the passage of a genocide resolution would greatly harm ties between Turkey and the United States.




© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr

[Joseph]

Senator Schummer

Senator Schummer calls on president to withdraw Hoagland nomination

yerkir.am
January 19, 2007

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), a long-time friend of New York's
Armenian community and senior member of the Senate leadership, has
joined Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Robert Menendez
(D-NJ) in urging President George W. Bush to withdraw the controversial
nomination of Richard Hoagland to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Citing the nominee's denial of the Armenian Genocide, Senator Schumer,
who serves as Vice-Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, noted, a January
17th letter to the President, that the nominee's confirmation would
undermine diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Armenia, and
offend the Armenian-American community.

The Empire State Senator has been sharply critical of the
Administration's policy on the Armenian Genocide and its premature
replacement of the previous Ambassador, John M. Evans, after he spoke
truthfully in characterizing this crime as a genocide in speeches
last year to Armenian American civic groups.

"Genocide can not be neatly swept under the carpet. Armenian Americans
are justifiably up in arms over the potential nomination of Richard
Hoagland as the U.S. Ambassador to their native country," said
Senator Schumer.

"Hoagland's reluctance to classify the Armenian Genocide as the 20th
century's first genocide is a travesty, which leaves us to believe
that he will march lock and step with the administration's politically
motivated stance of denial."

He added that, "In order for justice to prevail, for progress to be
realized and genuine reconciliation to be possible, there must first
be recognition of the facts of history. That must start with a simple,
unequivocal declaration that the Ottoman's actions during the period
in question were tantamount to genocide.

I cannot support Mr. Hoagland, because, regrettably, he has not met
that standard." "We join with Armenians from New York and across
the nation in expressing our appreciation to Senator Schumer for his
principled stand against the Hoagland nomination," said ANCA Executive
Director Aram Hamparian.

"For more than three decades - going back to his early years in the
New York State Assembly, as a member of the U.S. House, and now as a
leader of the Senate - Chuck Schumer has always been a powerful voice
for justice and a great friend to the Armenian American community."

The Senate's confirmation of the Hoagland nomination has been
the subject of growing Congressional controversy and Armenian
American community outrage, culminating in two "holds" placed on his
confirmation by Senator Robert Menendez - initially in September of
last year, during the 109th Congress, and again in the 110th Congress
after the President re-nominated him earlier this month.

The New Jersey legislator's second hold came just two days after
the Bush Administration re-nominated Hoagland on January 9th. His
first hold was placed after the Ambassador-designate, in response
to questions posed to him during his confirmation hearing, went
far beyond the bounds of the Administration's already deeply flawed
policy, actually calling into question the Armenian Genocide as a
historical fact.

Citing the opposition of the Armenian American community and the
growing controversy within Congress surrounding the nomination, Senator
Menendez was joined on December 1st by incoming Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-NV) in calling on President George W. Bush to withdraw
the Hoagland nomination and propose a new candidate to serve in this
important diplomatic post.

They stressed that, in light of the broad-based concerns within
Congress, the extensive media coverage this issue has received,
and the strong stand of the Armenian American community against the
nomination, "it would serve neither our national interests nor the
U.S.-Armenia relationship to expect Ambassador-designate Hoagland to
carry out his duties under these highly contentious and profoundly
troubling circumstances."

A recent poll of Armenian Americans found that 97% opposed the Hoagland
nomination. Ninety-four percent of the respondents said that they
"strongly agreed" with the Senate's opposition to his nomination.

An additional 3% noted that they "somewhat agreed" with this
opposition. One percent reported that they "somewhat disagreed" with
opposing Hoagland, and 2% indicated that they "strongly disagreed"
with the opposition to his confirmation.

More than half of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
more than 60 U.S. Representatives have raised concerns about the
Hoagland nomination and the State Department's refusal to explain
the controversial firing of his predecessor, John Marshall Evans,
for speaking truthfully about the Armenian Genocide.

The Department of State has also failed to offer any meaningful
explanation of the role that the Turkish government played in the
dismissal of Ambassador Evans, a diplomat with over thirty years of
service at the Department of State.

[SoSarkissian]

another point of view

Whoever gets nominated to be the ambassador of USA in Armenia, will follow the general policy. Personal opinions are prohibited for an ambassador; he will only speak whatever he was told by the white house.

Washington had a great relationship with Turkey. I said "had" because clearly the relationship is not as it was before and it’s fading out slowly. You can see what I mean by going through these points:

1. Relationship's peak was from mid 80s till end of 90s where US army basis in Turkey were vital during the former Soviet Union.

2. From 2000 onwards relationship started to have bumps, where Turkey was pushing the White House to interfere and back up Turkey to enter the EU.

3. Washington couldn't help Turkey to get into EU because he formed alliance with EU to go on with their plans for the middle-east.

4. IRAQI war was almost the end of the relationship between Turkey and US when Turkey wanted to join the US army in invading IRAQ (so they can solve the Kurdish problem which they are having with northern Iraqi territory) BUT Washington said NO and Turkey closed the US army basis. As a result, US army launched their attacks from the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabian borders.

5. The Largest USA embassy in the world is now built in Yerevan. Anyone wonders why? It’s for the next phase of the general politics of the world. It’s Turkey's time now, and very soon. No one likes Turkey to remain powerful in this region (including their allies as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, etc.)

If you look at Israel in middle-east the best support receiver from US between all that Arab countries, I believe Armenia will be the same in its region in 10-15 years the biggest support receiver from EU and USA between Turkey and Turkish alliances region (which are surrounding us)

So it really doesn't matter who is the ambassador now, because when its time to talk about the Armenian Genocide FILE they will, its just not right now, but do believe its in the list and we shall make the SEVR agreement with our new borders applied officially.