[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 25, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S3500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               91ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, this month people around the world are 
joining together to remember and honor the men, women, and children who 
perished in the Armenian genocide. One and a half million Armenians 
were systematically massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and 
over 500,000 more were forced to flee their homeland of 3,000 years. It 
is important that we note this terrible tragedy.
  When the Armenian genocide occurred, from 1915 to 1923, the 
international community lacked a name for such atrocities. In January 
1951, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 
Genocide entered into force to affirm the international commitment to 
prevent genocide and protect basic human decency. Today, we have the 
words to describe this evil, and we have an obligation to prevent it. 
But we must also have the will to act.
  The Armenian genocide may have been the first instance of what 
Winston Churchill referred to as ``the crime without a name,'' but it 
was certainly not the last. During the Holocaust, and later in the 
former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the world has seen the crimes of ethnic 
cleansing and genocide recur again and again. Too often, the 
international will to stop atrocities has been lacking, or far too late 
in coming. Today, as the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, continues to 
unfold, we have to muster the will and the sense of urgency required to 
save innocent lives.
  The international community has made the first steps, but it has a 
long way to go in punishing and, particularly, preventing genocide. As 
we move forward, we must learn the lessons of Armenia's genocide. We 
cannot be misled by the rhetoric of scapegoating, denial, and 
obfuscation used by murderous leaders to disguise their agenda. And we 
cannot respond to evidence of methodical, brutal violence by wringing 
our hands and waiting for some definitive proof that these events 
qualify as genocide. Enforcing a collective, international commitment 
to prevent and stop genocides from occurring is imperative. We owe the 
victims of the Armenian genocide this commitment.
  This is why we must remember the Armenian genocide. To forget it is 
to enable more genocides and ethnic cleansing to occur. We must honor 
its victims by reaffirming our resolve to not let it happen again.

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