Ümit Enginsoy – Hurriyet Daily News
The United States’ ambassador to Ankara, Frank Ricciardone, late Wednesday appeared before the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee for his second confirmation hearing, but the committee will not decide on his fate until September.
President Barack Obama last year nominated Ricciardone for the Ankara job, but right-wing Republican Senator Sam Brownback effectively blocked him. All senior administration officials, including ambassadors, need to be confirmed by the Senate with only one senator’s objection being sufficient to prevent confirmation.
In Wednesday’s hearing pro-Armenian Democratic Senator Robert Menendez pushed Ricciardone on Armenian-related matters. When Menendez asked him if the U.S. had ever denied the “Armenian genocide,” Ricciardone replied: “I stand behind President Obama’s characterization of the ‘Medz Yeghern’ [great calamity], as the Armenians themselves call it, the tragic murder of a million and a half men, women and children who were marched to their deaths in 1915. But I stand behind our characterization of that and our efforts of what we are trying to do now.”
If Ricciardone passes the committee hurdle, then his nomination will go to a vote in the full Senate. Under U.S. law, if Ricciardone also this time fails to win the Senate’s confirmation before the end of this year, his post as ambassador to Ankara will end.
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