11 June 2008, 17:19
US Senators to consider new Ambassador to Armenia
The candidature of Mary Yovanovich, a new US Ambassador to Armenia, will be considered at the session of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Commission on June 19. Ms Yovanovich was nominated to the position by US President Georges Bush on March 28.
The previous candidature of Richard Hogland, nominated by Bush, was blocked by Senator Robert Menendes (New Jersey), since the candidate had refused to use the word "genocide" for the tragedy of the Armenian people in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. In August 2007, Mr Hogland's nomination was recalled by the president.
Armenian lobbyists have emphasized in their conversations with the members of the Senate's Foreign Affairs Commission that the US envoy to Armenia should recognize the genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, know about the continuing blockade of Armenia by Azerbaijan, and contribute to well-balanced position of the USA in peaceful and democratic settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
We remind you that the post of the US Ambassador to Armenia is vacant for almost two years already after Ambassador John Evans had left Yerevan. In the opinion of Armenian circles in the USA, the early Evans' recall was a result of the fact that in a number of his public presentations he called the 1915 tragedy of Armenian people in the Ottoman Turkey to be genocide.
Author: Lilit Ovanisyan, CK correspondent
