[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERED

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                               speech of

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 1994

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a grim 
chapter of world history. Though many overlook the events of the 
Armenian genocide, we neglect this era at our peril.
  April 24 is a somber anniversary. On this date in 1915 a hitherto 
unprecedented atrocity began in the Ottoman Empire with the roundup of 
hundreds of Armenian political, religious, and intellectual leaders. 
This act was the gateway to an unconscionable crime. Over the 
succeeding months and years, the Armenian people were systematically 
removed from their homes in Asia Minor and Turkish Armenia. Often 
executing men and older boys outright, the Ottoman Government forced 
Armenian women and children to march into Syrian desert. Most did not 
survive.
  The historical record is repugnant. Between 1915 and 1922, 1,500,000 
Armenians lost their lives, and over 500,000 were exiled from the 
Ottoman Empire. The effects are all too evident today. At the beginning 
of World War I, over 2,500,000 Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. 
Today, fewer than 100,000 declared Armenians remain in Turkey, which 
encompasses much of the old empire.
  We all know the oft-repeated but all too true expression that those 
who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The world 
quickly forgot about the Armenian massacre. This forgotten past was 
repeated with amplified horror in the death camps of Nazi Germany. 
Although we wish that these horrible events at least would have 
resulted in ending tolerance of ethnic hatred, today's world is filled 
with atrocities from which we often turn away and rationalize inaction. 
From Bosnia to Rwanda, the lessons of the past are being forgotten and 
repeated anew. Distinctions of race, ethnicity, or nationality continue 
to obscure our common humanity and serve as a pretext for slaughter. 
Ancient crimes, both real and imagined, are repaid with the blood of 
the living and innocent.
  Mr. Speaker, as we remember the victims of the Armenian genocide, I 
note that 2 weeks ago, we remembered those slain during the Holocaust. 
I hope I will never hear a colleague come before this body to observe a 
day of remembrance for the victims of some future genocide.
  As we pause to remember the genocide of a million and a half 
Armenians, let us not be satisfied with remembrance. Let us dedicate 
ourselves instead to a future in which remembrance of the past elicits 
constant vigilance against the atrocities of hatred, a future when 
people do not turn away from the world's horrors but act to end them.

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