[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 24, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I rise this evening as a member of the 
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, as have many of my colleagues, 
to commemorate and affirm the Armenian Genocide, one of the darkest 
chapters of the 20th century.

                              {time}  2000

  We have heard this repeated, and I think it is worth repeating 
because it is important that it is indelibly implanted in our minds. 
April 24, 1915, is remembered and solemnly commemorated each year by 
the Armenian community and people of conscience throughout the world. 
On that day, a group of Armenian religious, political and intellectual 
leaders were arrested in Constantinople, taken to the interior of 
Turkey and murdered. In the 8 years that followed, 1.5 million 
Armenians were murdered and 500,000 were deported because of the 
Ottoman Empire's decision to attempt to eliminate the Armenian people 
living under their rule.
  Through our bipartisan congressional efforts, we have and we must 
continue to acknowledge and to remember the killing and the suffering 
inflicted on the Armenian people during those 8 years at the beginning 
of the last century. Real people died and the results were and are 
still shocking.
  The Armenian genocide is a historical fact. There is a nonpartisan 
academic consensus that between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians 
perished at the hands of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. I deeply 
regretted the decision made by this body last year not to consider 
House Resolution 596, legislation recognizing the Armenian genocide. If 
we in the Congress continue to react with silence regarding these 
events and are unwilling to stand up and publicly condemn these 
atrocities, we effectively give our approval to abuses of power such as 
the Armenian genocide.
  We must let the truth about these events be known and continue to 
speak out against all instances of inhumanity against one another. To 
this day it is still denied by the Turkish Government, just as the 
Nazis 2 decades later denied the Holocaust. Both of these atrocities 
could have been prevented or at least mitigated if the public had been 
aware of them. Sadly, it was only after the world learned of the 
Holocaust and the depths to which human beings could sink in their 
treatment of each other that the massacre of the Armenian population of 
Turkey gained attention as genocide.
  Responding to this horror, governmental bodies throughout the world 
have passed resolutions and declarations affirming the Armenian 
genocide, including Canada, Argentina, Belgium, Lebanon, Vatican City, 
Uruguay, the European Parliament, the Russian Duma, the Greek 
Parliament, the Swedish Parliament and the French National Senate.
  Additionally, 27 States, more than half, have also passed resolutions 
condemning the Armenian genocide. I am very pleased that on April 9 of 
this year my own State of Maryland enacted the Maryland Day of 
Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. I, as had some others, had 
written to members of the Maryland Assembly urging their support of the 
resolution. I believe this measure will help educate others about this 
crime against humanity and send an appropriate message to the thousands 
of Maryland residents of Armenian descent who have been profoundly and 
personally affected by the Armenian genocide and who have made 
tremendous contributions to our State in the areas of business, 
agriculture, academia, government, and the arts.
  We salute the proud people of Armenian who spent 70 years fighting 
Stalinist domination and who have finally, in the past decade, achieved 
freedom. However, these freedoms must never allow them or us to forget 
the hardships suffered by their ancestors. Our universal respect for 
human rights must instill in all of us the continued condemnation and 
acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide, one of history's darkest 
chapters of the 20th century.

                          ____________________