{"id":311,"date":"2019-11-30T11:49:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T11:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=311"},"modified":"2019-12-01T09:18:40","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T09:18:40","slug":"armenian-genocide-why-didnt-marie-yovanovitch-ever-acknowledge-the-systematic-mass-murder-of-mideast-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=311","title":{"rendered":"ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: Why didn’t Marie Yovanovitch ever acknowledge the systematic mass murder of Mideast Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 29, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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Note: <\/span>The preceding cartoon (the cartoonist has given her permission) can accompany the article and is available in several sizes: http:\/\/www.armeniapedia.org\/wiki\/File:Truth_%26_Consequences_001.jpg<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

What the U.S. House\u2019s Impeachment Inquiry Wouldn\u2019t Ask <\/b><\/span>Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch <\/b><\/span><\/h1>\n

By David Boyajian\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Turkey, the increasingly wayward NATO member, has been making more national and international headlines than usual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Oct. 29, for instance, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed (405-11) Resolution 296.\u00a0 <\/span>It recognized the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek, and other Christian genocides committed by Turkey.<\/span><\/p>\n

A contentious, widely criticized White House meeting involving President Trump, Turkey\u2019s autocratic President Erdogan, and Republican senators then took place on Nov. 13. <\/span><\/p>\n

Two days later, Marie L. Yovanovitch, dismissed by President Trump in May of 2019 as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, testified on national TV before the House Select Committee on Intelligence\u2019s impeachment inquiry.\u00a0 <\/span>Her dismissal, she alleged, occurred because Trump attorney and confidant Rudy Giuliani<\/span><\/a>, Donald Trump Jr., Fox News hosts, and others had been slandering her as disloyal to the president. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are intriguing links among the House\u2019s Genocide resolution, the Trump-Erdogan-Senators meeting, and Yovanovitch who was Pres. George W. Bush\u2019s (\u201cBush II\u201d) Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What no Democratic or Republican committee member dared ask Yovanovitch \u2014 and what she didn\u2019t wish to discuss \u2014 was her apparent 13-year-long failure to criticize the scandalous dismissal and forced early retirement of a fine American diplomat, John Marshall Evans. <\/span><\/p>\n

Evans was Bush II\u2019s ambassador to Armenia (June 2004 to Sept. 2006).\u00a0 <\/span>Yovanovitch followed him in that post <\/i>(Sept. 2008 to June 2011).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Due to senators\u2019 revulsion at Evans\u2019 dismissal, the ambassadorship stood empty for two years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Armenian American communities always host U.S. ambassadors to Armenia.\u00a0 <\/span>In February of 2005, Amb. Evans told them, \u201cI will today call it the Armenian Genocide\u201d because \u201cit is unbecoming of us as Americans to play word games.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was an honest admission of America\u2019s 90-year-long recognition of Turkey\u2019s extermination<\/span><\/a> (1915-23) of 1.5 million Armenian Christians.\u00a0 <\/span>But the State Dept. disliked Evans\u2019 use of the word \u201cgenocide.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Turkey cried foul too. <\/span><\/p>\n

At Turkey\u2019s insistence, the State Dept. tells American diplomats and presidents to avoid the G word<\/i> (genocide) regarding the Armenian extermination.\u00a0 <\/span>Such spinelessness, while typical of the State Dept.\u2019s traditional obsequiousness towards Turkey, is a disgrace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Amb. Evans was simply echoing, as but one example, President Reagan\u2019s Proclamation 4838 in 1981 which cited \u201cthe genocide of Armenians.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regrettably, post-Reagan presidential statements commemorating the Genocide have avoided the G word.\u00a0 <\/span>They employ euphemisms such as \u201cannihilation,\u201d \u201cforced exile and murder,\u201d \u201cinfamous killings,\u201d \u201cterrible massacres,\u201d and \u201cmarched to their death.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, House resolutions<\/span><\/a> in 1996 (Res.3540), 1984 (Res.247), and 1975 (Res.148) affirmed the Armenian \u201cgenocide.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps more significantly, a U.S. filing<\/span><\/a> in 1951 with the International Court of Justice (\u201cWorld Court\u201d) cited \u201cthe Turkish massacre of the Armenians\u201d as \u201cgenocide.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Use of the G word remains important for legal reasons because it is defined in the UN Genocide Convention\/Treaty of 1948 which most countries have signed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amb. Evans Punished<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Amb. Evans was nevertheless forced to issue a clarification in late February of 2005 for uttering the G word.\u00a0 <\/span>But the State Dept. didn\u2019t like its wording.\u00a0 <\/span>So it wrote a clarification of the clarification and ordered Evans to sign it.\u00a0 <\/span>Though Evans bravely toiled on, his 33-year career was in jeopardy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) has over 16,000 current and retired Foreign Service members.\u00a0 <\/span>In 2005, after Amb. Evans had uttered the G word, AFSA announced he would receive its prestigious \u201cConstructive Dissent Award.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The award recognizes \u201cinitiative, integrity, intellectual courage and constructive dissent\u201d and diplomats who \u201cquestion the status quo and take a stand no matter the sensitivity of the issue or the consequences\u201d and \u201cstick his\/her neck out.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Perfect descriptions of Amb. Evans. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Turkish anger and Bush II\u2019s State Dept. bullied AFSA into withdrawing the award.\u00a0 <\/span>AFSA\u2019s excuse: Evans\u2019 \u201cgenocide\u201d dissent hadn\u2019t gone through official channels.\u00a0 <\/span>Had Evans done so, though, his entreaty would surely have wound up in a shredder. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cong. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) blasted<\/span><\/a> the AFSA for setting \u201ca terrible example.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>The award \u201cwas taken from [Evans] because of politics and denial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Compare Evans\u2019 courage with Yovanovitch\u2019s publicly bemoaning her recall from Ukraine.\u00a0 <\/span>Still a State Dept. employee, she\u2019s now a Senior State Dept. Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her predecessor Amb. Evans, in contrast, was driven into early retirement in 2006 by the White House.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cBorn-again Christian\u201d Bush II kowtowed to Turkish pressure over the genocide of a Christian nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2008, Bush II nominated Yovanovitch as Ambassador to Armenia.\u00a0 <\/span>The Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted her confirmation hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senator<\/i> Barack Obama (D-IL) and others were upset that neither Yovanovitch nor Bush II would acknowledge the annihilation of Armenians as \u201cgenocide.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>She also incorrectly testified that no president had cited the killings of Armenians as \u201cgenocide.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>As we know, Pres. Reagan did so in 1981.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a brutal battle, the Senate nevertheless confirmed her in August of 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n

As ambassador to Armenia, Yovanovitch was reportedly asked whether she\u2019d acknowledge the Armenian Genocide if the president were to do so.\u00a0 <\/span>One would assume she\u2019d simply say yes.\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, she dodged the question.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An \u201cambassador serves his president and may be recalled at any time and for any reason<\/i> [emphasis added],\u201d she replied. \u201cIt fully depends on the president.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

If Yovanovitch really believed that, why is she grumbling about being recalled from Ukraine? <\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, newly-elected presidents including Obama and Trump usually require current ambassadors to submit their resignations.\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps Obama-appointee (Aug. 2016) Yovanovitch should be grateful that Trump kept her on for 28 months. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yovanovitch visited Armenian American communities in 2009.\u00a0 <\/span>She again frustrated them with evasive answers about the Genocide and the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijan over Armenian-majority Karabagh\/Artsakh.\u00a0 <\/span>I attended one such visit in Arlington, Mass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And, apparently, Yovanovitch has never commented on Amb. Evans\u2019 dismissal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The largely unheralded John Evans stands head and shoulders above Yovanovitch, a media darling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obama and Other Flip-Floppers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Senator<\/i> Obama and his soon-to-be National Security Council member and UN Ambassador Samantha Power promised Armenian Americans to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide if he became president.\u00a0 <\/span>Power\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Problem from Hell<\/i> (2002) devoted chapter 1 to the Armenian Genocide. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet President<\/i> Obama and Power later avoided the G word. <\/span><\/p>\n

When Hillary Clinton became Obama\u2019s Secretary of State (2009-13), she flip-flopped<\/span><\/a> too.\u00a0 <\/span>She avoided the G word that she\u2019d used as a New York senator and 2008 presidential candidate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2010, Sec. Clinton laid flowers at Armenia\u2019s Genocide Memorial<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>She stressed, however, that her stealthy visit was merely \u201cprivate,\u201d not official.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet she and Presidents Clinton, Bush II, and Obama have officially paid their respects at the Kemal Ataturk mausoleum\/memorial in Ankara, Turkey.\u00a0 <\/span>Ataturk was the Turkish leader who continued the Genocide against Armenians and Christian Greeks and Assyrians from 1919 onwards.<\/span><\/p>\n

While they avoid the G word for the Armenian Genocide, these top American leaders are comfortable honoring a Turkish genocidist. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Armenian Genocide is nearly universally accepted by expert historians, despite Turkey\u2019s absurd denials.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, for one hundred years, historians have possessed Turkish telegrams that explicitly ordered mass murder.\u00a0 <\/span>These have been proven, yet again,<\/span><\/a> to be absolutely genuine. <\/span><\/p>\n

Like his immediate predecessors, Pres. Trump has avoided the G word.\u00a0 <\/span>But he has called<\/span><\/a> the Armenian Genocide \u201cmass atrocities\u201d and (as did Obama) \u201cMedz Yeghern\u201d (Armenian for Great Crime<\/i>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some impeachment inquiry members knew all about Yovanovitch\u2019s failure to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and Evans\u2019 dismissal and coerced retirement.\u00a0 <\/span>Had they brought it up, however, they would have been walking through political minefields.<\/span><\/p>\n

Political Minefields<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Republican committee members could easily have damaged Yovanovitch\u2019s credibility. They could have revealed her evasions regarding the Armenian Genocide in her 2008 confirmation hearing and her apparent ongoing failure to express dismay at Evans\u2019 dismissal from the post she inherited.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet they failed to bring any of this up.<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, it was Bush II, a Republican<\/i>, who dismissed Amb. Evans, appointed Yovanovitch, failed (as has Trump) to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and pressured AFSA to rescind its award to Evans.\u00a0 <\/span>Plus, Republican<\/i> Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois withdrew an Armenian Genocide resolution in 2000, partly at the behest of former Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Democrats,<\/span> committee <\/span>Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) represents a sizeable Armenian constituency in Los Angeles.\u00a0 <\/span>He knows Yovanovitch\u2019s record very well.\u00a0 <\/span>But Democratic<\/i> presidents Clinton and Obama themselves avoided the G word.\u00a0 <\/span>So Schiff said nothing.\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover, in 2007 Democratic<\/i> Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) withdrew an Armenian Genocide resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hence, the impeachment inquiry committee didn\u2019t broach the Yovanovitch\/Evans issue even though Turkish and Armenian issues were simultaneously swirling around Washington. <\/span><\/p>\n

And, of course, had questions about Evans led to the hypocritical roles<\/span><\/a> of the Jewish lobby and Israel in denying\/diminishing, and defeating resolutions on, the Armenian Genocide, Congress would have been highly embarrassed. <\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Senate Resolution<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate has a pending Genocide resolution (Res.150) identical to that the House just passed.<\/span><\/p>\n

But GOP Senators Lindsay Graham<\/span><\/a> of South Carolina, David Perdue of Georgia, James Risch of Idaho, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have blocked a vote on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Erdogan is undoubtedly threatening the White House over the resolution and other issues.\u00a0 <\/span>It doesn\u2019t help that Pres. Trump\u2019s investments in Turkey constitute, in his own words, \u201ca little conflict of interest<\/span><\/a>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On May 11, 1920<\/i> the Republican majority Senate passed Resolution 359<\/span><\/a> on the \u201cmassacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered.\u201d The resolution couldn\u2019t use the G word because it was coined only in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin.\u00a0 <\/span>He recognized Turkey\u2019s extermination of Armenians as a seminal genocide and drafted the UN Genocide Convention\/Treaty.<\/span><\/p>\n

Few Americans know that Presidents Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, and Hoover also condemned the atrocities Turkey perpetrated against Armenians and others over decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Does any of this matter?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from moral and humanitarian considerations, yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Caucasus \u2014 Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia \u2014 remains a geopolitical hotspot and a major flash point between the U.S. and Russia.\u00a0 <\/span>Much is at stake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turkey has threatened<\/span><\/a> Armenia, sometimes with genocidal memes, since the latter\u2019s independence in 1991. <\/span><\/p>\n

Armenia\u2019s 2 million or so Christians are trapped between hostile Turkey and Azerbaijan with their combined 90 million populations.\u00a0 <\/span>Turkey and Azerbaijan are allies.\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover, Israel and the powerful Jewish lobby are allies of Azerbaijan and unfriendly to Armenia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Armenia\u2019s existence, therefore, is continually in peril.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a major reason why Armenia allies itself with Russia, the nearest major Christian power. <\/span><\/p>\n

Armenia has also excellent relations with the U.S. and Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But when American presidents and the State Dept. play word games with the Armenian Genocide, this does not reassure Armenia, which must draw negative conclusions about America\u2019s trustworthiness and intentions.<\/span><\/p>\n

That, in turn, is not in America\u2019s interests.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2008, Cong. Jim Costa (D-CA) wrote the following to Yovanovitch:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDenying a traumatic event such as genocide, one cannot create, nor implement, honest and effective diplomacy.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those words ring truer than ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the author\u2019s articles can be found at http:\/\/www.armeniapedia.org\/wiki\/David_Boyajian<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span># # #<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 29, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}