Frank Pallone: “Ambassador Evans, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, recently when meeting with Armenian Americans during visits in several…”

“Ambassador Evans, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, recently when meeting with Armenian Americans during visits in several U.S. cities referenced the Armenian genocide. In a series of public statements, Ambassador Evans who has studied Russian history at Yale and Columbia and Ottoman history at the Kennan Institute stated, ``I will today call it the Armenian Genocide.'' Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans' statements did not contradict U.S. policy, but rather articulated the same message that the Bush administration has sent to the public, the only difference in this case is that Ambassador Evans simply assigned the word to the definition that was already provided by President Bush as well as members of his administration. Breaking with a pattern on the part of the State Department of using alternative and evasive terminology for the Armenian genocide, Ambassador Evans pointed out that ``no American official has ever denied it.'' Now, Ambassador Evans was merely recounting the historical record which has been attested to by over 120 Holocaust and genocide scholars from around the world. In so doing, he was merely giving a name, the accurate description of genocide, to this very administration's statements on the issue.”