[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 132 (Thursday, October 19, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H10462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my intense disappointment 
with the decision by the Republican leadership today to pull the 
Armenian genocide resolution from consideration by the House of 
Representatives for the remainder of this session of Congress.
  The Speaker promised to bring this resolution to the floor. His 
stated reason for not doing so is a request by President Clinton that 
it not be considered. Mr. Speaker, the State Department and President 
Clinton have opposed recognition of the Armenian genocide from day one. 
We all know that the State Department repeatedly uses national security 
as the reason to oppose most things Armenian.
  What is really going on here is that the Speaker and the President 
and, therefore, the government of these United States, both Executive 
and Legislative, have succumbed to the threat of the Turkish 
government, threats by that government against American soldiers and 
American lives.
  Mr. Speaker, this is shameful. Turkey is a bully. We have America, 
the most powerful country in the world, being told by the Republic of 
Turkey what we can talk about and what we can think, not only with 
regard to human rights violations, but with regard to the most heinous 
crime against humanity, genocide.
  I would like to know what kind of ally threatens American lives if it 
does not get its way. With friends like that, as the saying goes, who 
needs enemies. It is not as if Turkey's membership in NATO and 
assistance as part of the NATO alliance only helps the United States. 
Turkey allows NATO to use its bases against Iraq because of Iraq's 
threats to Turkey, not Iraq's threats to the United States. Turkey 
allows NATO to use its bases out of its own self-interest.
  If Turkey is going to abrogate all of its bilateral and multilateral 
agreements over the Armenian genocide resolution, well I do not think 
that is going to happen. I think not. These agreements exist because 
they are in Turkey's self-interest.
  Mr. Speaker, what happened today on the House floor I think sets a 
terrible precedent. It means that Turkey can threaten us in other 
areas. For example, they can threaten not to negotiate a settlement on 
Cyprus and continue to occupy that nation. They can threaten the 
European Union if that organization does not allow them to become a 
member despite continued human rights violations against the Kurds and 
other minorities.
  Mr. Speaker, we have heard these same Turkish threats before. In 
1996, for example, this body voted overwhelmingly, 268 to 153, to adopt 
an amendment to reduce U.S. assistance to Turkey until it recognized 
the Armenian genocide.
  The doomsday scenarios that the opponents of the resolution predicted 
in 1996 did not occur. I do not believe they would have occurred today 
if we had passed the Armenian genocide resolution.
  The relationship between the United States and Turkey is mutually 
beneficial. It is simply not in Turkey's national interest to sever 
relations with the United States over a House Resolution.
  This brings me back, Mr. Speaker, to the Armenian genocide resolution 
and the importance I believe it plays in our overall foreign policy. If 
America is going to live up to the standards we set for ourselves and 
continue to lead the world in affirming human rights everywhere, we 
need to stand up and recognize the Armenian catastrophe for what it 
was, the systemic elimination of a people.
  The fact of the Armenian genocide is not in dispute. The fact that 
the American record on the U.S. response to the Armenian genocide is 
not in dispute and House Resolution 596 affirms these facts. The only 
step left is to reject the deniers of the genocide.
  As Members of Congress, we should not ignore our Nation's history at 
the insistence of an ally out of geopolitical convenience. Congress 
should not be forced by a foreign government to deny or ignore the U.S. 
record and response to the events that took place in the Ottoman Empire 
from 1915 to 1923.
  If the House of Representatives cannot speak to our historical 
experience because of threats from a foreign government, then what 
message do we send to our friends and our enemies alike?
  Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Hastert), Speaker of the House, to basically reconsider his decision 
and to allow House Resolution 596 to come to the floor. I assure the 
Speaker that it will pass overwhelmingly. The votes were there today if 
the Speaker had only let the resolution come to the floor.
  To do anything else would establish a dangerous precedent for how 
history will be recorded with regard to current and future actions of 
Congress and the administration in response to man's inhumanity to man.
  The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is, if we do not recognize the Armenia 
genocide, other genocides will occur. The fact of the matter is that 
those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

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