[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 54 (Thursday, April 26, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. NYDIA M. VELAZQUEZ

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 24, 2001

  Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join with my colleagues 
to remember a dark chapter in history and to honor and remember the 1.5 
million Armenian Christians victims who lost their lives at the hands 
of the Ottoman Empire during 1915 to 1923. I would like to thank the 
Co-Chairs of the Armenian Caucus, the gentlemen from New Jersey, 
Representative Frank Pallone and the gentlemen from Michigan, 
Representative Joe Knollenberg for organizing this special order 
commemorating the 86th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide--of one of 
the greatest tragedies of history and the first genocide of the 20th 
century.
  Today, I join with Armenian-Americans in my congressional district, 
the Armenian-American community throughout the United States and the 
Armenian community abroad in mourning the loss of so many innocent 
lives. It is important that we remember and learn from history, because 
if we ignore the lessons of the past, we are destined to repeat 
history. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the Preface to the Encyclopedia of 
Genocide, published in 1999 by the Institute on the Holocaust and 
Genocide in Jerusalem, writes: ``It is sadly true what a cynic has 
said, that we learn from history that we do not learn from history. And 
yet it is possible that if the world had been conscious of the genocide 
that was committed by the Ottoman Turks against the Armenians, the 
first genocide of the twentieth century, then perhaps humanity might 
have been more alert to the warning signs that were being given before 
Hitler's madness was unleashed on an unbelieving world.''
  The facts of the Armenian Genocide are clear and amply documented as 
demonstrated by official reports and accounts by the U.S. Ambassador to 
the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. In a July 1915 report to the 
Department of State, U.S. Ambassador Morgenthau, Sr., reported: ``a 
campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of 
reprisal against rebellion.'' In describing the events in the Ottoman 
Empire during 1915 to 1923, Henry Morgenthau stated ``I am confident 
that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible 
episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem 
almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian 
race in 1915.''
  As we gather on this day to remember the past and mourn those who 
lost their lives, their homes, their families and their freedom, let us 
pledge to do all that we can to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is 
properly recognized and remembered to prevent such atrocities from 
occurring in the future.

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