Vote on Marie Yovanovitch designation for U.S. Ambassador to RA expected late July

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Senate Committee vote on confirmation of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia will likely be held late July, following the July 4th Congressional recess.



"The vote was postponed as result of the Senate hearing during which the Ambassador-designate was asked a number of questions demanding a written response," U.S. Charge d'Affairs Joseph Pennington said during a forum held in Yerevan today to discuss Armenia's Anti-Corruption Obligations.



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 Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and was ultimately withdrawn by the Administration, following the nominee's statements denying the Armenian Genocide.



"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.