[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 46 (Wednesday, April 12, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H2169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about the 
Armenian genocide commemoration. I am going to talk a little bit about 
Armenia. There are many positive things happening in Armenia today that 
give us confidence that progress is being made. Armenia has made 
remarkable, stable strides toward becoming a democratic free market 
economy even in the face of the setbacks, including the tragic 
assassinations of Armenian Prime Minister Vazgen Sarksyan and other 
Parliament members last October. I had gotten to know Mr. Sarksyan 
before this tragedy and found him to be a man of immense ideas.
  It was a tragedy that frankly we all look at with horror. It is 
behind us now. The government is strong. They have been able to go on 
in spite of this tragedy, and they have strengthened the situation to a 
point where it will prevent any future happening of this kind.
  Tonight, I would like to talk not so much about what is going on in 
Armenia and how it is growing but, rather, to talk about a dark period 
in the remembrance of the genocide that took place back in 1915. When 
most people hear the word genocide, they immediately think of Hitler 
and his persecution of the Jews during World War II.
  Many individuals are unaware that the first genocide of the 20th 
century occurred during World War I and was perpetrated by the Ottoman 
Empire against the Armenian people. Concern that the Armenian people 
would move to establish their own government, the Ottoman Empire 
embarked on a reign of terror that resulted in the massacre of over a 
million and a half Armenians. This atrocious crime, as I mentioned, 
began on April 15, 1915, when the Ottoman Empire arrested, exiled, and 
eventually killed hundreds of Armenian religious, political, and 
intellectual leaders.
  Once they had eliminated the Armenian people's leadership, they 
turned their attention to the Armenians serving in the Ottoman Army. 
These soldiers were disarmed and placed in labor camps where they were 
either starved or executed. The Armenian people, lacking political 
leadership and deprived of young, able-bodied men who could fight 
against the Ottoman onslaught were then deported from every region of 
Turkish Armenia. The images of human suffering from the Armenian 
genocide are graphic and as haunting as the pictures of the Holocaust.
  Why then, it must be asked, are so many people unaware of the 
Armenian genocide? I believe the answer is found in the international 
community's response to this disturbing event. At the end of World War 
I, those responsible for ordering and implementing the Armenian 
genocide were never brought to justice. And the world casually forgot 
about the pain and suffering of the Armenian people. This proved to be 
a grave mistake. In a speech before his invasion of Poland in 1939, 
Hitler justified his brutal tactics with the infamous statement, ``Who 
today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?''
  Six years later, 6 million Jews had been exterminated by the Nazis. 
Never has the phrase ``those who forget the past will be destined to 
repeat it'' been more applicable. If the international community had 
spoken out against this merciless slaughtering of the Armenian people 
instead of ignoring it, the horrors of the Holocaust might never have 
taken place.
  As we commemorate the 85th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, I 
believe it is time to give this event its rightful place in history. 
This afternoon and this evening, let us pay homage to those who fell 
victim to the Ottoman oppressors and tell the story of the forgotten 
genocide. For the sake of the Armenian heritage, it is a story that 
must be heard.

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