Umit Enginsoy, Washington Turkish Daily News

Pro-Armenian Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer Tuesday placed a one-month hold on U.S. President George W. Bush’s pick for the ambassador to Yerevan, hinting that she or a like-minded senator may permanently block the nomination on grounds that the nominee is declining to characterize World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman empire as “genocide.”   The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday was due to vote on the nominations of 22 would-be U.S. ambassadors, including Marie Yovanovitch, the pick for the Armenian capital.It eventually confirmed 21 of them, delaying only Yovanovitch’s case until the committee’s next “business meeting,” probably in mid-July, a committee official told the Turkish Daily News. The reason was Boxer’s hold.”Senator Barbara Boxer today secured a one-month delay in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s consideration of the confirmation of U.S. ambassador to Armenia nominee Marie Yovanovitch in response to the State Department’s delay in providing timely written responses to the eight sets of written questions submitted to her by members of the panel,” the Armenian National Committee of America, or ANCA, said in a written statement.”Senator Boxer not only provided senators with the opportunity they would otherwise have been denied, to meaningfully review the nominee’s responses, but also, very significantly, ensured that all Americans citizens – including Armenian Americans and those who share our commitment to ending the cycle of genocide – have a chance to study her answers,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of ANCA, the largest U.S. Armenian group.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, were among the senators sending written questions to be replied by Yovanovitch, the ANCA said.Richard Hoagland, Bush’s earlier nominee for Yerevan, could never win the Senate’s confirmation for the post, as Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, another strong supporter of the Armenian cause, blocked his nomination two years ago on grounds that he had failed to qualify the Armenian killings as genocide.

History repeating itself?

Menendez last week also interrogated Yovanovitch during her confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Despite Menendez’ insistent questioning, Yovanovitch, like Hoagland, declined to use the g-word.Analysts said that Boxer, Menendez or any other like-minded senator might permanently block Yovanovitch’s nomination too.The U.S. ambassadorial position in Yerevan has been vacant since May 2006, when John Evans, the last ambassador, was fired in the wake of his remarks qualifying the killings as genocide in defiance of Washington’s official policy.Bush then sought to replace him with Hoagland, whose case was later understood to be doomed.Senior U.S. officials need the Senate’s approval to take up their posts. Under U.S. laws, even a single senator has a power to put a hold on nominations of senior administration officials, including would-be ambassadors, although such moves are usually rare because they put the dissenting senator under intense pressure.A genocide resolution came close to passage at the U.S. House of Representatives last fall, and only strong Turkish warnings that such a move would destroy the Bush administration’s focused efforts to cultivate U.S.-Turkey relations caused it to be shelved.But analysts here warn that Turkey almost certainly will face the same problem in Congress next year. Making things worse for Turkey, Obama strongly supports the Armenian position.

Source: www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=108222