[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               84TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

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                               speech of

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 1999

  Mr. LARSON. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor the lives of 1.5 
million Armenians who perished during the brutal genocide that took 
place on April 24, 1915. However, I also rise to celebrate the lives of 
those who have survived. We honor their spirit and the legacy they have 
provided. For it is this legacy that encourages their children and 
grandchildren, friends and neighbors, to remind people throughout the 
world of this horrific action. An action that tragically marked the 
century's first genocide.
  According to the Archives of the Nuremberg Proceedings, Hitler 
instructed his SS units at a meeting in 1939 ``to kill, without pity, 
men, women, and children'' in their march against Poland, as such 
activities would have no long term repercussions. Who, he said, 
``remembers now the massacres of the Armenians?''
  As a Member of Congress I say with force and I say with compassion: 
We remember. We remember horrible violence that sent 1.5 million 
Armenian leaders, intellectuals, and clergy to their deaths and forever 
changed the lives of generations of families.
  Tomorrow I will carry that same message from the floor of the House 
of Representatives to the Connecticut State Capitol where I will 
address a group of survivors and children of survivors of the Armenian 
genocide. Every year these Connecticut residents make a commitment to 
come to Hartford to remind their friends, their community leaders, and 
their neighbhors of the solemn anniversary that is marked throughout 
the country on April 24.
  The most disturbing part of this anniversary is that 84 years later 
genocide remains a part of our vocabulary. From Rwanda to Bosnia to the 
present day horrors of Kosovo, entire populations are being killed 
simply because of their ethnicity. It has been said that we can best 
plan for the future by learning from the lessons of the past. 
Unfortunately, it appears that too many nations are trying to find 
their path to the future by ignoring the past.
  As we commemorate this 84th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I 
urge my House and Senate colleagues to work toward this goal: that an 
entire generation never experiences the horrors of genocide, either by 
living through it or by feeling the pain of people half way around the 
world.
  I send my deepest prayers and thoughts to this country's Armenian-
American community.

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