ANCA RELEASED A DOCUMENT REFERRING TO JOHN EVANS’S FIRING

2007-05-10
Defacto

Internal State Department documents, released this week to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), reveal that a senior State Department official forced the return to the U.S. of former Ambassador to Armenia, John Marshall Evans, prior to U.S. Senate's approval of his replacement, effectively ensuring that this key foreign post would remain vacant.

The key document released by the Department was an August 8, 2006 "Sensitive-Eyes Only for Amb. Evans" memo from Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried to Ambassador Evans. In the note, the Assistant Secretary acknowledged Ambassador Evans's willingness to remain in Yerevan, until the Senate confirmed Richard Hoagland, the career Foreign Service officer, who had been nominated by President Bush to fill the Yerevan ambassadorial post after the Evans firing. Fried stated he was aware of Evans’s willingness to remain in Yerevan in the light of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponement of its consideration of Richard Hoagland's nomination. However, he requested that Evans "depart post by the end of the first week in September."

The Department's decision, as communicated in the August 8, 2006 Dan Fried memo, was taken amid intense opposition by Armenian Americans and growing scrutiny by members of the U.S. Senate over Hoagland's denial of the Armenian Genocide. The Fried memo was sent after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's August 1st postponement of its confirmation vote, and prior to the panel's September 7th consideration of the Hoagland nomination. Forcing Ambassador Evans’s physical return to the U.S. prior to this vote afforded State Department lobbyists the "talking point" that opposing the Hoagland nomination would mean leaving an ambassadorial vacancy in Yerevan.
The Hoagland nomination, facing bipartisan opposition, was ultimately blocked by Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Bob Menendez (D-NJ). The New Jersey legislator placed a hold on his confirmation by the Senate, arguing that a U.S. ambassador, who denies the Armenian Genocide, cannot be an effective U.S. representative in Armenia.

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