[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in commemorating 
the Armenian genocide. I hope other Members of the House will join us 
in commemorating this 83rd anniversary.
  The Oxford Dictionary defines the word ``genocide'' as, and I quote, 
``the deliberate extermination of a people or a nation.'' When most 
people hear this word, they immediately think of Adolf Hitler and his 
persecution of the Jews during World War II.
  Most individuals that you meet on the street are unaware that the 
first genocide of the 20th Century occurred during World War I, and was 
perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian people. The 
tactics utilized by the Ottoman Empire were every bit as brutal and 
deliberate as those used by Hitler.
  Concerned that the Armenian people would move to establish their own 
government, the Ottoman Empire embarked on a reign of terror that 
resulted in the massacre of over a million and a half Armenians.
  This atrocious crime began on April 15, 1915, when the Ottoman Empire 
arrested, exiled, and eventually killed hundreds of Armenians; the 
religious, the political, and the intellectual leaders.
  Once they had eliminated the Armenian people's leadership, they 
turned their attention to the Armenians that were serving in the 
Ottoman army. These soldiers were disarmed. They were placed in labor 
camps where they were either starved or were executed.
  The Armenian people, lacking any political leadership, then were 
deprived of all of the young able-bodied men who could fight against 
the onslaught, were then deported from every region of Turkish Armenia.
  The images of atrocities endured by these men and women are as 
graphic and as haunting as the ones that are etched in our minds from 
the Holocaust. Why, then, are so many people unaware of the Armenian 
genocide? I believe the answer can be found in the international 
communities; response to this disturbing event. Simply put, the 
unspeakable crimes against the Armenian people were essentially 
ignored.
  At the end of World War I, those responsible for ordering and 
implementing the Armenian genocide were never brought to justice, and 
the world casually forgot about the pain and suffering inflicted upon 
the Armenian people. This proved to be a grave mistake.

  In 1939, in a speech before his invasion of Poland, Hitler justified 
his brutal tactics with the infamous statement, ``Who today remembers 
the Armenians.'' And 6 years after his speech, 6 million Jews have been 
exterminated by the Nazis. As has been repeated on the floor this 
evening already, never has the phrase, ``those who forget the past will 
be destined to repeat it,'' been more true and more applicable.
  If the international community had spoken out against this merciless 
slaughtering of the Armenian people instead of ignoring it, the horrors 
of the Holocaust might never have taken place.
  As we commemorate the 83rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I 
believe it is time to give this event its rightful place in history. 
That is why we gather tonight to honor the memories of the victims of 
the genocide that occurred 83 years ago.
  So let us pay homage to those who fell victim to their Ottoman 
oppressors and tell the story of the forgotten genocide, the forgotten 
genocide. For the sake of the Armenian heritage, it is a story that 
must be heard, and it must be remembered.

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