[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S4108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, each year on April 24 many of us in 
Congress pause to remember the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide. On 
that date in 1915, more than 200 Armenian religious, political and 
intellectual leaders were arrested in Constantinople--now Istanbul--and 
killed, marking the beginning of an organized campaign to eliminate the 
Armenian presence from the Ottoman Empire. This brutal campaign would 
result in the massacre of a million and a half Armenian men, women and 
children.
  Thousands of Armenians were subjected to torture, deportation, 
slavery and murder. More than 500,000 were removed from their homes and 
sent on forced death marches through the deserts of Syria. This dark 
time is among the saddest chapters in the history of man.
  But Armenians are strong people and their dream of freedom did not 
die. More than seventy years after the genocide, the new Republic of 
Armenia was born as the Soviet Union crumbled. Today, we pay tribute to 
the courage and strength of a people who would not know defeat.
  Yet, independence has not meant an end to their struggle. There are 
still those who question the reality of the Armenian slaughter. There 
are those who have failed to recognize its very existence. We must not 
allow the horror of the Armenian genocide to be either diminished or 
denied.
  Genocide is the worst of all crimes against humanity. As indications 
of genocide arise in Kosovo, it is especially important to remember 
those who lost their lives in the first genocide of this century. We 
must never forget the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

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