Evans unrepentant on 'genocide'

02 September 2006
The New Anatolian

John Evans, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Armenia, said he is leaving his post without retracting his claim that Armenians suffered a "genocide" at the hands of the Ottomans, the Azeri Press Agency (APA) reported on Friday.

"I assessed the 1915 'Young Turkish' government's actions against Armenians as genocide and I do not retract this statement," said Evans in his last press conference in Yerevan on Thursday before leaving for the U.S.

He said he has received a "nice note" from Bush that thanked him for his work in Armenia. He also commended Bush's choice of the next U.S. ambassador to Yerevan, Richard Hoagland, as a "consummate professional."

Evans was recalled from Armenia this March reportedly for his statement that Armenians suffered genocide in the Ottoman Empire

"The Armenian genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century," Evans declared during a February 2005 meeting with Armenian-American activists in California.

But later on, seeing this statement caused great controversy, Evans told a press conference that his words were unofficially stated and do not represent the official position of his state.

"This expression belongs to me only, not a politician," he said.

Richard Hoagland, currently the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan, has not been yet confirmed by the U.S Senate as the new ambassador to Armenia.

The Armenian lobby is trying to hold up the appointment of Hoagland, for declining to describe what happened in 1915 as a "genocide."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has delayed its consideration of Hoagland's appointment because of the controversy. At a June confirmation hearing, senators grilled Hoagland, who said he wanted to avoid "getting stuck in the past and vocabulary."

The Bush administration has described the events in Ottoman Turkey during World War I as "horrific" and a "tragedy," but not as genocide. Turkey, an important US ally, strongly objects to that description, calling the deaths and deportations the outcome of a civil conflict with bloodshed on both sides. Ankara has recently suggested that it and Yerevan establish a joint commission of historians to study all the historical archives and reveal the truth about the events of 1915, but did not receive a positive response.

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