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ANKARA: Menendez again blocks nomination of envoy to Armenia

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  • ANKARA: Menendez again blocks nomination of envoy to Armenia

    Turkish Daily News , Turkey
    Jan 12 2007


    Diplomacy Newsline -
    Menendez again blocks nomination of envoy to Armenia:

    ANK - TDN with AP

    Democratic senator Robert Menendez, a key backer of the Armenian
    cause in the U.S. Senate, on Wednesday again blocked the nomination
    of a career diplomat to be U.S. ambassador to Armenia and urged the
    Bush administration to submit another candidate.

    Sen. Menendez placed a hold on the nomination of Richard Hoagland
    for the second time because of Hoagland's refusal to call the World
    War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians during the Ottoman Empire
    era genocide.

    A hold on nominations is a parliamentary privilege accorded to U.S.
    senators.

    Menendez has said: `the State Department and the Bush
    administration are just flat-out wrong in their refusal to recognize
    the Armenian genocide. It is well past time to drop the euphemisms,
    the wink-wink, nod-nod brand of foreign diplomacy that overlooks
    heinous atrocities around the world.'

    Hoagland's predecessor, John Evans, reportedly had his tour of duty
    as ambassador to Armenia cut short because, in a social setting, he
    referred to the killings as genocide. Menendez blocked Hoagland's
    nomination after he refused to use the word genocide at his
    confirmation hearing in June.

    The Bush administration resubmitted Hoagland's name on Tuesday
    because it effectively expired at the end of the previous Congress in
    December.
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