With an overwhelming majority of the votes, the US Senate confirmed Senator John Kerry (D-MA) as the next US Secretary of State. A total of 94 senators voted in Kerry’s favor and solely voted against him, AFP reports.

To note, during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, the senators were virtually unanimous on Kerry’s nomination to this post. 

President Barack Obama had nominated Kerry for the job in mid-December, 2012.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, the American Armenians had welcomed Kerry’s nomination as next Secretary of State, and the Armenian National Committee of America had called him a “long-time Armenian American issues supporter.”

Senator Kerry was first elected to the Senate in 1984.  He succeeded now-Vice President Joe Biden as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009.  Over the years, Senator Kerry has been a strong advocate for Congressional affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, cosponsoring many resolutions to end US complicity in Turkey's denial of this still unpunished crime.  As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he pressed ambassadorial nominee to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone about US policy on the Armenian Genocide, Turkey's blockade of Armenia, and the pending Turkey-Armenia Protocols. 

In the early 1990s, Senator Kerry was a vocal leader in support of Senate adoption of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, which restricted US assistance to Azerbaijan until it lifted its blockades and stopped its aggression against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.