[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1900
            REMEMBERING THE GENOCIDE OF THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise today to remember one of the 
most appalling events in human history, the genocide of the Armenian 
people.
  It shames and saddens me to say that the human race is no stranger to 
genocide: the great purges in Russia, during which Stalin methodically 
killed millions of Russians; the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews 
were systematically slaughtered by the Nazis; and less well known but 
certainly just as significant, the Armenian genocide, in which 1.5 
million Armenians were exterminated by the Ottoman Turks.
  I feel a special kinship to the Armenian people. As many know, I am 
of Greek descent and my ancestors, too, suffered at the hands of the 
Ottoman Turks. In fact, this past March 25, my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn Maloney) and I conducted a 
special order to celebrate Greek Independence Day.
  On that day, 177 years ago, the Greeks mounted a revolution which 
eventually freed them from the tyranny of the Ottoman Empire. 
Unfortunately, the Armenians were not as fortunate as their Greek 
brothers and sisters. Between 1915 and 1923, one and one-half million 
Armenians were murdered, and hundreds of thousands were driven from 
their homes by the Ottoman Turks.
  Today I want to acknowledge this tragedy and remember those Armenians 
who lost their lives. As citizens of a Nation that celebrates the 
strength of its diversity, we should always remember those dark moments 
in history where people were persecuted because they were different.
  Mr. Speaker, there is an unfortunate tendency to forget these 
horrific tragedies and bury them in the past. However, it is only 
through the painful process of acknowledging and remembering that we 
could keep similar dark moments from happening in the future.
  I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) and the gentleman 
from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the cochairs of the Congressional Caucus 
on Armenian Issues, for helping us do that.

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