WASHINGTON. – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) expressed trouble in connection with the appointment of Chuck Hagel as the U.S. Secretary of Defense and his attitude toward the Armenian Genocide recognition.

“We remain troubled by former Senator Hagel’s acceptance of Ankara’s gag-rule on American honesty about the Armenian Genocide – the still unpunished crime against a Christian nation that continues to define Turkey’s present-day policies toward Armenia and much of the region,” ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian told Commentary journal.

Earlier, Hagel has opposed official U.S. government recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and has declined to say whether he believes the massacre of more than 1 million Armenians beginning in 1915 was in fact genocide. He thinks it is better to leave it open to historians.