[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 15, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  AMBASSADOR EVANS DESERVES THE AWARD

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, 
recently received an award from the American Foreign Service 
Association for constructive dissent that is intended to ``foster 
creativity and intellectual courage within the State Department 
bureaucracy.''
  Last year, the winner was critical of the Iraq war.
  Ambassador Evans' constructive dissent was calling the deaths of 1.5 
million Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans in 1915 genocide. Our 
national policy towards the 1915 events calls it a tragedy, but not 
genocide.
  So Turkey was very upset, as were a number of ``very serious people'' 
at the State Department. And this award, intended to encourage dissent, 
was revoked.
  Obviously, the State Department was concerned about upsetting our 
ally, Turkey, though the facts seem to support the ambassador here. The 
sad thing is that an award intended to encourage dissent has now 
reinforced the powers that be. It seems the State Department is okay 
with dissent from the policy of a Republican President in Iraq, but it 
opposes dissent from a policy that denies the truth.
  So much for intellectual courage.

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