US envoy posts to Turkey, Azerbaijan remain vacant

The United States risks running its two key embassies in Ankara and Baku without full ambassadors for some time in the wake of moves by two senators to block the confirmation processes of President Barack Obama's nominees for the two posts.

U.S. and Turkish diplomats privately admit that the Republican senator who put a hold on the nomination of Frank Ricciardone for Ankara may lift his opposition in September, while the case with Matt Bryza, Obama's pick for Azerbaijan, may prove to be more complicated.

Under U.S. laws, all senior administration officials, including ambassadors, need to be confirmed by the Senate. Ambassadorial nominations first need the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's approval and should then be endorsed by a full Senate vote. Still, even a single senator has a right to effectively veto a would-be ambassador.

Obama this summer picked Ricciardone to replace James Jeffrey, who now is confirmed as the new U.S. ambassador in Baghdad.

Ricciardone, termed by some foreign policy experts as an "Arabist," won the backing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but on the last day before the Senate went to a summer recess, influential Republican Sen. Sam Brownback from Kansas formally put a hold on his nomination, saying, "I am not convinced Ambassador Ricciardone is the right ambassador for Turkey at this time – despite his extensive diplomatic experience."

Ricciardone has served as ambassador to Egypt and the Philippines, and his last job was deputy ambassador in Afghanistan. He earlier served twice in Turkey and speaks fluent Turkish.

In an Aug. 16 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brownback was particularly critical of Ricciardone's service in Egypt, which he said ignored human rights matters.

"My concerns about Ricciardone's work ... lead me to concerns about his approach to a number of issues in our relationship with Turkey," the senator said.

"Over the last few years, secular opposition parties [in Turkey] have complained that they received less access to the U.S. ambassador than the ruling party, and based on his record to date, I am concerned that this situation would not change under Ambassador Ricciardone," Brownback said.

"I believe we must be concerned that the Turkish government is moving away from its secularist roots. Next year's pivotal elections provide an opportunity for the secularists to demonstrate their strength, and we cannot let our desire for a strong bilateral relationship translate into de facto support of the ruling party, especially if we have reason to believe that opposition parties are in danger of being marginalized," he said.

Brownback then asked Clinton to provide him with information that would remove his concerns. Clinton is expected this week to send her written answers to Brownback, who in turn would decide in mid-September whether or not to lift his opposition to Ricciardone.

Matt Bryza's case

Bryza's story is somewhat different. During former President George W. Bush's second term, between 2005 and early 2009, and in Obama's first year as president, he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. Obama nominated him as ambassador to Baku in May.

Pro-Armenian groups opposed Bryza's nomination from the start, blaming his allegedly close links with Turkey and Azerbaijan. After Bryza appeared in his confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee July 22, the Armenian National Committee of America, the largest and most influential U.S. Armenian group, said the hearing "was characterized by evasive and incomplete answers to a series of probing questions."

Then, at the request of pro-Armenian Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, the committee postponed a vote on Bryza's nomination until the end of the Senate's recess in mid-September. But even if Bryza survives this vote, any senator could still indefinitely block his nomination.

Pro-Armenian senators have an impressive record of obstructing ambassadorial nominations in recent years. U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans was fired by Bush in May 2006 after he publicly qualified World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as "genocide," in violation of official U.S. policy.

Bush the next year nominated career diplomat Richard Hoagland to replace Evans, but after a lengthy discussion at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pro-Armenian Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, blocked his nomination, accusing him for failing to recognize the "Armenian genocide." Menendez never withdrew his veto, and eventually Hoagland's nomination went nowhere.

Bush in 2008 nominated another career diplomat, Marie Yovanovitch, as ambassador to Yerevan. This time Boxer temporarily put a hold to her nomination, but eventually withdrew it, which enabled Yovanovitch to assume her job in Yerevan.


/Hurriyet Daily News/