[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 162 (Wednesday, October 24, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




WELCOMING HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II, SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF 
      ALL ARMENIANS TO THE 10TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARK STEVEN KIRK

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 24, 2007

  Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, I am honored to welcome His Holiness Karekin 
II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, to the 10th 
Congressional District of Illinois. His Holiness Karekin II was a 
pivotal figure in rebuilding the Armenian Church in the aftermath of 
the Soviet period and providing spiritual leadership for 7 million 
Armenian Apostolic Christians around the world. He has undertaken 
extensive philanthropic and humanitarian work, including opening 
orphanages, hospitals, soup kitchens for the elderly and cultural 
centers for the youth of Armenia. We would like to honor His Holiness 
Karekin II for his dedication to the people of Armenia and thank him 
for visiting the 10th District of Illinois.
  I hope this trip to the United States compels my colleagues to bring 
the Armenian Genocide resolution, H. Res. 106, to a vote before the 
full House of Representatives. For more than 90 years, Armenians were 
denied recognition for the Genocide of 1915.
  We promised in 1945 to never forget the Holocaust, to never again let 
such atrocities be committed. But the world could forget the first 
genocide of the 20th Century. In fact Hitler used the world's denial of 
the Armenian Genocide as justification for his invasion into Poland and 
the ensuing ethnic cleansing of Europe's Jewry. In a speech he gave in 
late August of 1939, Hitler stated, ``I have placed my death-head 
formation in readiness . . . with orders to send to death mercilessly 
and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation 
and language . . . Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of 
the Armenians?''
  As a defender of human rights, America must formally recognize the 
genocide Hitler once dismissed so easily. From 1915 to 1923, the 
Ottoman Turks systematically annihilated more than 1.5 million ethnic 
Armenians. There is no other way to describe this organized campaign of 
murder than as genocide.
  I encourage my fellow Congressmen to support the Armenian Genocide 
resolution so that we may finally provide the Armenian community with 
the recognition and justice they deserve.

                          ____________________