[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                84TH COMMEMORATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 1999

  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to remember a sad day in the 
world's history. Many of you may not remember this, but this year marks 
the eighty fourth anniversary of the Armenian genocide. During World 
War I, at least one million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire 
between 1915 to 1923.
  The brutal treatment that the Armenian people have suffered must 
never be repeated or forgotten. As a nation, we must never again allow 
a madman to exterminate an entire race of people to further his 
political ambitions. Every person and every race has a right to be free 
and safe in his own home. Those who commit these atrocities are 
criminals and must be tried for crimes against humanity.
  Today as we remember the Armenian genocide, it is with sadness that 
we again witness a genocide of another race, the Albanian Kosovars. 
Unlike the Armenian genocide, I am proud to say that the United States 
and its NATO allies have learned from the past and are taking strong 
actions to halt the inhuman actions of Slobodan Milosevic and his 
minions who so eagerly engage in these atrocious crimes against 
humanity.
  Through the blood of their ancestors, the Armenian people have 
struggled for their independence. In 1991, Armenia became a sovereign 
state. I know that the Armenian people and the Armenian-Americans are 
proud of their state and will forever remember the hardships that they, 
as a people, have endured to gain their freedom and independence.
  On this very somber day, I feel very strongly that we can perform no 
greater act of remembrance than to express our strong conviction to 
never again allow genocide to go unchecked in this world and to state 
unequivocally that the U.S. and its NATO allies will stop at nothing to 
end the slaughter in Kosovo. We owe at least this much to the memory of 
the Armenian victims of the Turkish genocide of the First World War.

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