[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 24, 2001)]
[House]
[Page H1534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 WE MUST CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE AGAINST FORGETTING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Madam Speaker, I stand in strong support of the Special 
Order commemorating the Armenian genocide; and I commend my colleagues, 
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) and the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), for putting this Special Order together and 
for keeping the issue of the Armenian genocide at the forefront here in 
Congress.
  The tragic occurrence perpetrated against the Armenian people between 
1915 and 1925 by the Ottoman Turkish Empire is of great concern to me 
and members of my constituency. During this relatively brief time 
frame, over 1.5 million Armenians were massacred and more than 5,000 
were exiled. Unfortunately, the Turkish Government has not recognized 
these brutal atrocities as acts of genocide. Nor is it willing to come 
to terms with these horrific events of the past that many of their 
ancestors participated in.
  Prior to the Armenian genocide, these brave people with a history of 
over 2,500 years in the region were subject to numerous indignities and 
periodic massacres by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. The worst of 
these massacres prior to 1915 occurred in 1895 when as many as 300,000 
Armenian civilians were murdered, and those who survived were left 
completely destitute.
  Despite these events, Armenians have survived as a people and a 
culture throughout Europe and now throughout the United States. The 
Turkish Government needs to come to terms with the past and work 
towards improving the future. Turkish groups have suggested that since 
Turks were also killed during that time frame it should not be 
considered a genocide.
  Genocide is the systematic, planned annihilation of a racial, 
political, or cultural group. It happened to the Jews in Germany, and 
it did happen to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
  I am well aware of the importance of Turkey as an ally in an unstable 
region and a frontline NATO state. However, the Turkish Government must 
officially recognize the atrocities of its predecessors in the Ottoman 
Empire. I believe that by failing to recognize such barbaric acts one 
becomes complicit in them.
  Milan Kundera, the once-exiled Czech novelist, has written, ``The 
struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against 
forgetting.''
  I believe that we, too, must continue to struggle against forgetting. 
This Special Order begins that process. This genocide and its lessons 
must never be forgotten.

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