[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 44 (Wednesday, April 20, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION

                                 ______


                               speech of

                     HON. HOWARD P. ``BUCK'' McKEON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 1994

  Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleagues today to recognize 
the 79th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
  Mr. Speaker, it is important to acknowledge the past, and both the 
respectable and despicable events that have occurred. We recall today 
the terrible period in history when the Ottoman Turkish empire targeted 
the Armenian population for persecution.
  Between 1915 and 1923 a systematic and deliberate campaign of 
genocide by the Ottoman Turkish Government resulted in the deaths of 
over 1.5 million Armenians and the exile of a nation from its historic 
homeland. Religious, political and intellectual leaders were gathered, 
and executed. Adult males were slaughtered in masse. Women and children 
were sent on death marches through the Southern Anatolian deserts. 
Nearly a third of the population was wiped out during this horrifying 
period of history. It is sobering to learn that later Hitler used the 
Armenian Genocide to rationalize the extermination of the Jews.
  Mr. Speaker, by the beginning of the First World War, there were more 
than 2 million, 500 thousand Armenians living in the Ottoman empire; 
today there are fewer than 80 thousand declared Armenians remaining in 
Turkey, mostly in Istanbul and Western Turkey. The eastern provinces--
the Armenian heartland--are virtually without Armenians.
  It is important to recognize this 79th anniversary of the Armenian 
genocide. We must acknowledge the dark periods of history to ensure 
that they never, never happen again.

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