[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 3, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E943]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______


                               speech of

                         HON. MICHAEL BILIRAKIS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 2, 1995

  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleagues 
Representative John Edward Porter and Representative Frank Pallone to 
commemorate and remember the victims of the Armenian genocide, a sad 
chapter of world history that remains unrecognized by our Government to 
this day.
  As many of my colleagues have already stated, between the years of 
1915 and 1923, a systematic and deliberate campaign of genocide by the 
Ottoman Turkish Government resulted in the deaths of more than 1\1/2\ 
million Armenians and the exile of a Nation from its historic homeland. 
One witness noted the ferocity of the attack by stating that the 
streets ran with blood.
  The United States Ambassador to Turkey at the time, Henry Morgenthau, 
a witness to the genocide, noted that ``When the Turkish authorities 
gave the orders for these deportations, they were giving the death 
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their 
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the 
fact.''
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that it is long past time for the Congress to 
officially recognize the fact that such a terrible crime against 
humanity took place. To do less would be irresponsible and wrong. The 
United States Archives contain extensive documentation regarding the 
Ottomon Turkish Government's premeditated attack on the Armenian people 
between 1915 and 1923.
  The Archives also document American interventions to prevent the full 
realization of Ottoman Turkey's genocidal plan and provide humanitarian 
assistance to those who survived.
  Mr. Speaker, how long will we as a Nation turn our backs on this 
vicious crime? How long can we let it escape official documentation? It 
is time that America of today take its rightful place alongside of 
America of that day, the America of Henry Morgenthau, the America that 
stood up to the Ottoman depredations and offered what assistance it 
could.
  Surely, this is the least we can do.
  

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