Following the departure of Ambassador John Evans on September 10, 2006 the US Embassy in Armenia has been left without an Ambassador and the huge US Embassy in Armenia, said to be the 2nd largest US Embassy building in the world, was headed by Deputy Chief of Mission Anthony F. Godfrey as Chargé d’Affaires a.i., while the Armenian lobby in US kept blocking Richard Hoagland’s appointment on the post of US Ambassador in Armenia because he allegedly does not sympathize with Armenian causes, the Armenian Genocide issue in particular. Now, as Anthony Godfrey is completing is term of service in Armenia, we are going to have another U.S. Charge d’Affairs in Armenia, instead of a long-anticipated Ambassador – Rudolf V. Perina:
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Rudolf Perina, former OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair was appointed acting U.S. Charge d’Affairs in Armenia. ‘The U.S. Department of State requested retired Ambassador Rudolf V. Perina to assume the post of acting U.S. Charge d’Affairs in Armenia. Mr Perina will take the office July 10,” U.S. Embassy PR Officer Taguhi Jahukian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
“Richard Hoagland remains the Bush administration designate for the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. We are waiting for confirmation from the Senate,” she said.
Rudolf Perina served as U.S. Special Negotiator for Nagorno Karabakh and NIS Regional Conflicts in 2001-2004.
It is hard to speak about the significance of this appointment, although political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan has already offered his point of view:
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Frankly speaking, I do not know the diplomatic rank of Rudolf Perina. However, he is a really experienced diplomat, professional conflictologist. R. Perina served as U.S. Special Envoy on local conflicts in Eurasia, he was closely involved in the settlement of the Yugoslavian conflict, directly participated in preparing and signing the Dayton Agreement,” political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan stated to the PanARMENIAN.Net journalist, commenting on Rudolf Perina’s appointment as U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Armenia. According to the political scientist, R. Perina is well aware of problems of Transdnestria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Karabakh. “Most likely, R. Perina’s appointment as U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Armenia is not an evidence for neglecting his knowledge and values, just the opposite, it speaks about the great importance that Washington pays to our region, in particular, to Armenia and NKR,” the Armenian political scientist underscored.
