Recently, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez stopped the election of candidate Richard Hoagland for the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. In the U.S., Senators have the right to stop the voting of sessions, which is exactly what Senator Menendez did by protesting the U.S. Armenian Genocide policy. It’s worth mentioning that last week, the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee confirmed Richard Hoagland’s nomination with a 13-5 vote as the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. It seemed as though Richard Hoagland was soon going to be the new ambassador, but it turns out that there are some obstacles. Senator Menendez said the following about his decision:
“It’s known for a fact that 90 years ago, the Ottoman Empire massacred 1.5 million Armenians. Throughout the years of 1915-1923, innocent people, including women and children, were forced to abandon their homeland and live abroad and despite the persecution that the Armenian people have seen in the past 100 years, many people, including the U.S. President, avoid using the word genocide when describing what happened.”
The Senator doesn’t think that it was right to remove already former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans from office. Besides that, the Senator is of the opinion that the appointing of Hoagland will not be in the interests of Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. The Armenian Assembly of America has welcomed the initiative taken by the Senator and despite the fact that Senator Menendez considered that as a way of protesting against the Bush administration’s policy, however many are of the opinion that that initiative has a lot to do with the upcoming U.S. Senate elections to be held in November and Menendez is going to take part.
P.S. Prime Minister of Turkey Erdoghan will meet with U.S. President George Bush on October 2nd.