[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 74 (Monday, May 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MILESTONE

  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 come to the House floor this evening to 
mark the fact that we now have 100 cosponsors of House Resolution 193, 
a bill reaffirming support of the Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This legislation seeks to educate 
on the horrors of the crimes against humanity of genocide and, by 
educating, helping to prevent genocide from happening again. It is 
common knowledge that history repeats itself, and some of the worst 
crimes against humanity are no exception to this rule.
  Mr. Speaker, as the cochair and founder of the Congressional Caucus 
on Armenian Issues, I have been involved in genocide recognition 
efforts for the past decade. The caucus is 125 members strong and has 
been instrumental in the education of my colleagues on the issue of 
Armenian genocide. We have organized floor speeches every year on April 
24, we have circulated a yearly letter asking the President to use the 
word ``genocide'' in his yearly April 24 address, and, most 
importantly, we were very close in the year 2000 in passing legislation 
officially recognizing the Armenian genocide.
  That resolution in 2000 did not come to the House floor for a vote 
due to a decision by the leadership. If it were not for that decision, 
the legislation would have passed overwhelmingly, in my opinion.
  As I mentioned, the Armenian Caucus sends a yearly letter to the 
President asking him to use the word ``genocide'' in his yearly April 
24 commemoration. President Bush, like President Clinton before him, 
made a campaign promise to give the Armenian genocide its due 
recognition, but then they both recanted. Both presidents avoided the 
use of the word ``genocide'' in their statements.
  This year, 168 Members of Congress, well over one-third of the total 
number of Members serving, asked President Bush to use the word 
``genocide'' last month. He instead characterized the worst crime ever 
to befall the Armenian people as a ``great calamity.'' I must say I 
reject this characterization as simplistic and also demeaning, and I 
hope my colleagues in the House will do the same. If they do, they have 
the chance to act by joining the 100 Members who have signed on to H.R. 
193 and take a stand to properly recognize the worst crimes against 
humanity.
  I use the plural ``crimes,'' because this legislation is not only 
about the Armenians. In the bill it states, ``the enactment of the 
Genocide Convention Implementation Act marked a principal stand by the 
United States against the crime of genocide and an important step 
towards ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust, the Armenian 
genocide and the genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, among others, will 
be used to help prevent future genocides.''
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we have not come together as a world 
community to eradicate the horrific crime of systematic destruction of 
an entire people. Every generation in the last 100 years has seen the 
brutal realities of genocide, but none have fully learned from it. 
Passing House Resolution 193, in my opinion, will help to educate and 
hopefully help to stop the crime of genocide in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to say that we have obtained cosponsors that 
will bear great credence to this bill. H.R. 193 is currently under 
consideration in the Committee on the Judiciary, with the gentleman 
from Wisconsin (Chairman Sensenbrenner) and the ranking member, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) on as cosponsors. Also among the 
100 cosponsors are the minority leader, the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Pelosi), and the former minority leader and presidential 
candidate, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt). All of my 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis will be instrumental in passing this 
bill, but it is nice to see some early support from a very diverse 
group of Members on a bipartisan basis.
  The title of House Resolution 193 includes the word ``genocide,'' but 
the heart of the bill is about humanity. It takes humanity to overcome 
the ignorance that spurs the evil crime of genocide, learning about 
another culture instead of fearing it. It takes humanity to bridge the 
gap of hate that exists between a warring people.
  We have seen this work in the last century. One of the worst crimes 
ever to be committed, the Holocaust against the Jews, is the best 
example of how some good can come from a terrible evil. At the end of 
World War II, Germany was vanquished as a Nation and its citizens were 
forced to accept the reality of what Hitler had done. The fact is, 
Germans as a people accepted that something horrific had taken place, 
and they accepted it. Last year, the Holocaust Museum in Berlin became 
a reality. Sixty years after the Holocaust, peace was made where war 
had begun.
  The lessons of the relationship of the Jewish and German people 
should be applied to the rest of the victims and perpetrators of the 
crime of genocide all around the world. This is especially true, Mr. 
Speaker, in Armenia and Turkey. It has been 88 years since the 
beginning of the genocide, and after 33 U.S. State legislatures, over a 
dozen governments around the globe and vast documentation in our 
national archives, the Turkish government still will not recognize the 
Armenian genocide. They have instead established a deliberate campaign 
of revisionist history to try to commit the last act of genocide, the 
destruction of culture and history.
  I ask that the Turkish government give up its futile effort and for 
my colleagues to join me in recognizing the worst crimes against 
humanity.

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