Marie Yovanovitch confirmation consideration expected after July 4

PanARMENIAN.Net - Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 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, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Communications Director Elizabeth S. Chouldjian told PanARMENIAN.Net



"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 and take part in the civic discourse over a diplomatic posting that has been the center of national attention since the Administration's firing of Ambassador John Evans over his truthful remarks on the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.



As of close of business the day before the Committee was set to vote on the nomination, the nominee had yet to respond to all Senate inquiries, with several responses only being provided hours before the scheduled vote. The Senate Committee vote will likely be held following the July 4th Congressional recess.



"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," Ms. Marie Yovanovitch said in her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 19, 2008.



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 Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and was ultimately withdrawn by the Administration, following the nominee's statements denying the Armenian Genocide.