[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              90TH COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. STEPHEN F. LYNCH

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 26, 2005

  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join with Armenians 
throughout the United States, Armenia, and the world in commemorating 
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, one of the darkest 
episodes in Europe's recent past. This week, members and friends of the 
Armenian community gather to remember April 24, 1915, when the arrest 
and murder of 200 Armenian politicians, academics, and community 
leaders in Constantinople marked the beginning of an 8-year campaign of 
extermination against the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire.
  Between 1915 and 1923, approximately 1.5 million Armenians were 
killed and more than 500,000 were exiled to the desert to die of thirst 
or starvation. The Armenian genocide was the first mass murder of the 
20th century, a century that was sadly to be marked by many similar 
attempts at racial or ethnic extermination, from the Holocaust to the 
Rwandan genocide and now the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
  In the 90 years since the beginning of this genocide, we have learned 
the importance of commemorating these tragic events. In 1939, after 
invading Poland and relocating most Jews to labor or death camps, 
Hitler cynically defended his own actions by asking, ``Who remembers 
the Armenians?'' Just a few years later, 6 million Jews were dead. Now 
is the time when we must answer Hitler's question with a clear voice: 
We remember the Armenians, and we stand resolved that genocide is a 
crime against all humanity. We must remember the legacy of the Armenian 
genocide and we must speak out against such tragedies to ensure that no 
similar evil occurs again.
  While today is the day in which we solemnly remember the victims of 
the Armenian genocide, I believe it is also a day in which we can 
celebrate the extraordinary vitality and strength of the Armenian 
people, who have fought successfully to preserve their culture and 
identity for over a thousand years. The Armenian people withstood the 
horrors of genocide, two world wars, and several decades of Soviet 
dominance in order to establish modern Armenia. Armenia has defiantly 
rebuilt itself as a nation and a society--a triumph of human spirit in 
the face of overwhelming adversity.
  It is my firm belief that it is only by learning from and 
commemorating the past can we work toward a future free from racial, 
ethnic, and religious hate. By acknowledging the Armenian genocide and 
speaking out against the principles by which it was conducted, we can 
send a clear message: never again.

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