[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, every year it is a solemn moment when we 
gather on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to remember 
and commemorate the victims and the survivors of the Armenian genocide, 
but this year the unspeakable crimes against humanity and genocidal 
acts perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire against the Armenian 
people carry an even more profound resonance. The desperate cries of 
the Armenian people as their villages were pillaged and burned, as 
their family members and community leaders were murdered before the 
eyes of their children, as children were separated from their parents, 
as they were driven from their homes and forcefully marched into war 
camps and exiled, as the land worked by Armenian hands for generations 
was taken by force, the cries of these Armenians are echoed in today's 
headlines and broadcast from the Balkans.
  In 1915, at the start of the systematic and premeditated genocide of 
the Armenian people by the young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire, 
there were no television broadcasts from the field to let the world see 
what was happening. There was no NATO to punish the Turks for their 
actions against a defenseless civilian population, and there was no 
resolve on the part of the international community to return Armenians 
to their homeland.
  In the end, 1.5 million people perished at the hands of the Turks 
between 1915 and 1923, through direct killings, starvation, torture and 
forced death marches. Another million fled into permanent exile from 
their ancestral homes. An ancient civilization was expunged from its 
homeland of 2,500 years.
  Mr. Speaker, scarcely 250 days away from the start of the 21st 
century, we remain a world of generations haunted by the ghosts of the 
victims of genocide, from the Armenians at the beginning of the century 
to the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians.

                              {time}  1330

  In Worcester, Massachusetts, which it is my honor to represent, Mayor 
Raymond Mariano has designated April 24th as Armenian Martyrs Day, for 
that is really what we are talking about: A century of martyrs. It is 
important to remind the current generation and future generation that 
the seeds of the Holocaust and the seeds of ethnic cleansing were 
planted by the Turks in their genocide against the Armenian people at 
the beginning of the 21st century. When Raphael Lemkin coined the word 
``genocide'' in 1944, he cited the 1915 annihilation of the Armenians 
as an example of genocide.
  In Worcester, we are blessed with a number of survivors whose lives 
not only teach us the lessons of history, but also about the resiliency 
and dignity of the human spirit. I would like to name but a few of them 
today:
  Marion Der Kazarian, Nevart Kinosian, Sara Sahakian, Almas Boghosian, 
Sarah Bulbulian, Aghavni Garabedian, Mary Kalashian, John Kasparian, 
Ovsanna Nordigian, George Ogden, Raffi Samkiranian, Hrant Yaghmourian 
and Nouemzar Sarkisian.
  Along with all of the other members of the Armenian-American 
community in Worcester in the Third Congressional District of 
Massachusetts, they enrich the life of our communities and society.
  If there is one lesson of the 20th century, it is that these heinous 
acts against humanity will continue if we allow ourselves to forget 
history. We must all commit ourselves to never forget. That is why I am 
proud to join my colleagues, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Radanovich) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), on their bill 
to officially observe the Armenian Genocide, to have the United States 
officially recognize this period of history as the Armenian Genocide, 
and to have the United States press the Turkish government to 
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
  Yet, in the shadow of Kosovo, our Nation and other nations still 
resist acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. Last May, the French 
National Assembly passed a bill to publicly recognize the Armenian 
Genocide of 1915. This spring the French Senate and the government of 
France, under pressure from Turkey, are in a turmoil over whether to 
approve this legislation. In the United States, we find the government 
of Turkey attempting to influence our universities, to pretend these 
acts of genocide against the Armenian people did not happen, and we 
find U.S. strategic interests in arms sales to Turkey are more 
influential in setting our foreign policy priorities than acknowledging 
the truth about acts that took place 84 years ago.
  That is because in 84 years, the truth of the Armenian genocide is 
still powerful and still resonates in current events, and that is why 
it must be officially acknowledged, why it must be taught in our 
schools, remembered in our houses of worship and honored in our 
communities. Now, more than ever, we must recognize, acknowledge, 
commemorate, mourn and remember the Armenian Genocide. To do less is to 
doom future generations to repeat and relive these horrors.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Porter) 
and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) in particular for their 
leadership on this issue, and I hope that this government will do the 
right thing.

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