khosq.com

Despite the struggle and suffering of Armenians today, Americans of Armenian descent are willing to hold the last sliver of Homeland hostage to fight the wrong battle. The proposed ambassador has not 'denied the Genocide' but rather quite candidly admits it entirely except for the eight-letter name. She is simply following her boss' policy (as any ambassador naturually should and would). ANCA should fight in Congress and let the Armenian people have as US representative there to help save them from Russia and the Oligarchs. What is ANCA's plan after the almighty Word has been uttered by a US president? What will it change? No amount of Birthright tours or Armenian Volunteer corps members will sustain the Diaspora without a homeland.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Senator Barack Obama has received written responses to the four written questions he submitted to U.S. Ambassador Designate Marie Yovanovitch
as part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ongoing review of
her nomination to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) told PanARMENIAN.Net

"We remain troubled by Ambassador Yovanovitch’s evasive answers, her
outright non-responses, and her refusal, in her replies to Senator
Obama and other Senators, to offer anything approaching a reasonable or
factually supportable explanation of the reasons behind
Administration’s misguided policy on the Armenian Genocide," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA.

"This being said, it appears as though Ambassador Yovanovitch and her
colleagues have learned from the disastrous Hoagland experience and are
coming to understand that the U.S. Senate will not accept – and the
Armenian American community will never allow - an Ambassador to
Armenia who denies the Armenian Genocide."

Ambassador Yovanovitch appeared as a witness before the Committee on
June 19th. During this appearance, she faced a series of pointed
questions from Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) regarding the Bush
Administration’s policy to mischaracterize the Armenian Genocide.
Afterwards, as many as eight Senators, including Senator Menendez,
submitted a series of written inquiries to the nominee.

"We compromise our standing as a nation when we require that our
Foreign Service officers either lie or conceal the truth in the conduct
of our foreign affairs. This exercise of euphemisms and evasion in
relation to the Armenian Genocide, which everyone knows is the result
of Turkish government pressure, undermines our credibility," added
Hamparian. "Our diplomats should be sent abroad with a clear message:
speak the truth and America will stand with you."

President Bush nominated Amb. Marie L. Yovanovitch in March of this
year to serve as America’s next Ambassador to Armenia. The ANCA has
spoken to Committee members about the value of carefully questioning
Amb. Yovanovitch on the many issues she will face as the U.S. envoy in
Yerevan, among them the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey
and Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockades of Armenia, and the need for a
balanced U.S. role in helping forge a democratic and peaceful
resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

“The U.S. government – and certainly I – acknowledges and mourns the
mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and forced deportations that
devastated over one and a half million Armenians at the end of the
Ottoman Empire. The United States recognizes these events as one of the
greatest tragedies of the 20th century, the "Medz Yeghern" or Great
Calamity, as many Armenians refer to it. That is why every April the
President honors the victims and expresses American solidarity with the
Armenian people on Remembrance Day.

The Administration understands that many Americans and many Armenians
believe that the events of the past that I have referred to should be
called "genocide." It has been President Bush’s policy, as well as that
of previous presidents of both parties, not to use that term. The
President's focus is on encouraging Turkish citizens to reconcile with
their past and with the Armenians. He seeks to support the painstaking
progress achieved to date. President Bush believes that the best way to
honor the victims is to remember the past, so it is never repeated, and
to look to the future to promote understanding and reconciliation
between the peoples and governments of Armenia and Turkey. A key part
of that effort is to end Armenia’s isolation in the region by
encouraging normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey and
the opening of their land border. The Armenian government has requested
that we facilitate this process. It will not be easy nor will it likely
be quick, but there are some hopeful signs,” Ambassador-Designate
Yovanovitch said in her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on June 19.

President Bush’s previous nominee as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia,
Richard Hoagland, was subject to two legislative holds by Sen. Menendez
and was ultimately withdrawn by the Administration, following the
nominee’s statements denying the Armenian Genocide.

The ANCA led the Armenian American community campaign opposing
Hoagland’s nomination, stating that a genocide denier could not serve
as a credible and effective U.S. spokesperson in Armenia.