[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5331-S5332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, I rise today in commemoration of the 
Armenian genocide. As the 88th anniversary of this horrific event 
approaches, I would like to take a few moments to pay tribute to the 
men, women and children who were murdered or displaced in the 20th 
century's first systematic attempt to extinguish an entire people.
  On April 24, 1915, the Turkish Ottoman government initiated a 
campaign to expel 1.75 million ethnic Armenians from its borders. 
Turkish authorities operated under the baseless claim that its Armenian 
community would be disloyal in a time of war since they were neither 
Turks nor Muslims. On April 24, government leaders rounded up 300 
Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and professionals in what was then 
Constantinople for their deportation or, for many, their deaths. In 
nearby areas, 5,000 of the poorest Armenians were killed in their homes 
or on the streets. Over the course of the subsequent 2 years, between 
500,000 and 1 million Armenians were killed and 750,000 were forced to 
leave their homes.
  Henry Morgenthau, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 
remarked, ``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.''
  Records of eyewitness accounts allow us to gain an incomplete yet 
painful understanding of the atrocities the Armenian people faced. An 
American missionary wrote, `` . . . All tell the same story and bear 
the same scars: their men were all killed on the first days [sic] march 
from their cities, after which the women and girls were constantly 
robbed of their money, bedding, clothing and beaten, criminally abused 
and abducted along the way.''
  Another account by an Armenian and corroborated by a German 
missionary said, ``We all had to take refuge in the cellar for fear of 
our orphanage catching fire. It was heartrending to hear the cries of 
the people and children who were being burned to death in their houses. 
The soldiers took great delight in hearing them, and when people who 
were out in the street during the bombardment fell dead, the soldiers 
merely laughed at them. . . . ``
  I wish we could say that such events are in the past and that history 
will never again have not been learned and millions of other people and 
races have suffered at the hands of malicious leaders who have acted 
upon their messages of hate and intolerance.
  Each year during my tenure in the Senate, I have spoken out about the 
Armenian genocide. I believe the highest tribute we can pay to the 
victims of any genocide is by acknowledging the horrors they faced and 
reaffirming our commitment to fight against such heinous acts in the 
future. It is important that we take the time to remember and honor the 
victims, and pay respect to the survivors, especially as that 
generation passes on.

[[Page S5332]]

  I know my Senate colleagues join me in celebrating the continued 
vitality of the Armenian culture, and in honoring and remembering the 
victims of the Armenian genocide.

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