[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3797]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING THE GENOCIDE OF THE ARMENIANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to 
speak on a matter that is very close to my heart, to stand with my 
Armenian friends and brothers and sisters across this country and 
around the world that today remember their parents and grandparents 
that were killed in a genocide that existed on April 24, 1915, and for 
several years following that date. That is a period of time that means 
so much to the Armenian people throughout the world, and it is a period 
of time that unquestionably was a genocide against a people simply 
because of their race, of their religion, and of their heritage, their 
ethnic heritage, which means so much to that people throughout the 
world today.
  Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that on the floor of this House that 
we a few years ago, when I first was elected to the Congress of the 
United States, refused to acknowledge the word genocide despite the 
fact that the origin of the actually word genocide came as a result of 
the witnesses that bore truth to the facts that took place on April 24, 
1915.
  The truth of the matter is that this has become a highly political 
debate, a debate that is fueled by modern-day politics that somehow 
feel the squeeze of the invisible hand of the ancient Ottoman empire 
that continues to have its hidden hand in the policies that take place 
on the floor of this House and throughout the world today, and I call 
upon this administration, the Clinton administration, to acknowledge 
the fact that a genocide did, in fact, take place on April 24, 1915, 
and to recognize the tremendous contributions that the Armenian people 
continue to make to this country today. We see an unprecedented success 
story of ethnic heritage and of a completion of a complete taking part 
in American life by the Armenian people.

                              {time}  1900

  A tremendous success story in terms of economic development, a 
success story that also remembers the roots of the American people. 
When you look at the kinds of schools, the kinds of language, the 
newspapers, the fact that in my district today there will be children 
walking down the streets of Watertown, MA, remembering that their 
parents and grandparents and great grandparents were killed simply 
because of who they were, it is important that we today in this House 
acknowledge the fact that a genocide took place and acknowledge the 
fact that still today prejudice takes place throughout the world 
against the Armenian people.
  That is why I called upon and saw passed in this House the act which 
we refer to as the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, that calls upon the 
Turks to finally open up the borders between Armenia and Turkey, to 
open up trade between Armenia and Turkey, that talks about the fact 
that we need to break down the barriers that exist between Azerbaijan 
and Armenia and the Assyrians, to finally stop the fighting and to 
finally open up trade so that we can create peace in that region. We 
need to continue to work through IDA and through the World Bank to make 
certain that we are providing the necessary humanitarian aid.
  Mr. Speaker, I visited Armenia just 2 or 3 years ago in the dead of 
winter and saw little babies freezing in their own urine inside 
hospitals where the temperature was 10 or 15 degrees because of the 
fact that that country has been so cut off from the rest of the world. 
This is a land that has had the greatest success story of the former 
Soviet states, and yet today still suffers not because of the drive and 
determination of the Armenian people, but because we allow and the 
world allows the prejudice to continue to take place against Armenia by 
both Turkey as well as Azerbaijan.
  So on this date of April 24, let me call upon the people of the 
United States to remember the tremendous contributions that the 
Armenian people continue to make to the United States, and let us call 
upon our own sense of history and heritage to ask that the Russians, to 
ask that the Turks, to ask that the Assyrians finally come to grips 
with the true meaning of humanitarianism and provide decent, honorable 
and open trade with the Armenian people, with the country of Armenia, 
to bring about continuation of democracy, a continuation of economic 
prosperity, and to recognize the tremendous contributions that the 
Armenians continue to make throughout the world and most particularly 
in the United States of America.

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