ACA Encourages Thorough Examination of Jeff Flake’s Nomination to Serve as US Ambassador to Turkey

The Armenian Council of America encourages the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations to thoroughly examine former U.S. Senator Jeff Flake’s nomination as US Ambassador to Turkey.

On July 14, US President Joe Biden nominated Republican former US Senator Jeff Flake as Ambassador to Turkey. During his tenure, he was a persistent ally of Ankara’s campaign of Armenian Genocide denial. Flake consistently opposed bipartisan Congressional efforts to recognize the Armenian Genocide. In 2005, 2007 and 2010, as a member of the US House of Representatives, Flake voted against measures on the Armenian Genocide pending before the House International Relations Committee. In 2014, Flake was one of only five US Senators to oppose an Armenian Genocide resolution advanced in the US Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations by its Chairman, Robert Menendez (D-NJ).

“We are deeply dismayed by the recent nomination of Senator Flake, who has a record of appeasing Ankara’s propaganda machine of genocide denial,” Armenian Council of America Chair Sevak Khatchadorian said. “At this juncture, as the US Administration has officially re-affirmed the history of the Armenian Genocide, it is pertinent the next United States Ambassador to Turkey have a record of moral integrity, espousing frankness and honesty amid US-Turkey relations.”