[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                                ARMENIA

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I wish to speak today in tribute to the 
courage and tenacity of the Armenian people, to recall the horrors they 
have suffered over the centuries, and to remind us all that we must 
never let these events be repeated.
  For generations these courageous people have fought against attempts 
to destroy their culture and erase their existence.
  In 1915, the Ottoman Empire began a genocidal campaign against the 
Armenian people. Armenians were forced from their homes and slaughtered 
by the millions. Armenian leaders were arrested by the Turks and 
executed en masse. Survivors of this horror--women, children and the 
elderly--were forced to march into the Syrian Desert. Approximately 1.5 
million people lost their lives during the march, due to torture, 
starvation, and disease.
  The surviving Armenians lived under Ottoman Empire repression, until 
May 28, 1918. On this day, Armenian refugees, with the help of 
volunteers from abroad, defeated a Turkish attack and gained freedom.
  Sadly, the Armenian people were once again subjugated when the Soviet 
Union joined with Ottoman Empire forces to attack and defeat Armenia. 
The Armenians remained under Soviet domination until the breakup of the 
Soviet Union in 1991, when the Armenian people voted for independence. 
The Republic of Armenia was born.
  The Armenians' hardship, unfortunately, did not end with the 
designation of their homeland. Fierce ethnic clashes with neighboring 
Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh have plagued them for the past 6 years. 
An Azerbaijani blockade and continued ethnic violence have devastated 
Armenia.
  The Armenian genocide that we commemorate today effectively 
eliminated the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire and marked the 
beginning of a century of cruelty and suffering, unparalleled in 
history. Indeed, it served as an inspiration for Adolf Hitler, who 
asked, before planning the extermination of European Jewry, ``Who 
remembers the Armenians?''
  We all must remember the Armenians and we all must work together to 
ensure that genocide is permitted never again.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, is the leader's time reserved?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the minority leader is 
recognized.

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