[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 66 (Thursday, April 24, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H2740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               93RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today we mark the 93rd 
anniversary of the onset of the Armenian genocide. It is on this date 
that the Ottoman officials captured more than 200 Armenian intellectual 
leaders and placed them in prison. Unfortunately, these actions were 
only the beginning of the Ottoman-led atrocities against the Armenians.
  During the following years, at least 1.5 million Armenians were 
arrested and compelled to march hundreds of miles to what is today the 
Syrian desert. And along the way, prisoners of all ages endured hunger, 
thirst, rape, sexual abuse, and other forms of torture.
  While it is difficult for us to commemorate these terrible acts each 
year, we must continue to remember those horrors that can occur when 
governments persecute citizens based on ethnicity or religious 
affiliation.
  We often hear those words of George Santayana's famous quote that, 
``Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'' And 
these words are ringing true today as well. Already, there are those 
who deny that the Armenian genocide occurred despite the vast evidence 
to the contrary. Meanwhile, our generation has seen its own mass 
murders occur in Rwanda and Sudan.
  So, I urge my colleagues in the majority to bring House Resolution 
106, which commemorates these atrocities that occurred only a few 
generations ago, to the House Floor for a vote. Now is the time for 
America to officially ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflects 
sensitivity concerning human rights issues.
  Just yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting Alice Khachadoorian-
Shnorhokian. Alice is a resident of Mahwah, New Jersey, which is a town 
in my district. Alice was born in Turkey in 1912 to a successful, 
respected Armenian family of eight. And when Turkish officials ordered 
Armenians to denounce their faith and nationality, she and her parents 
refused. As a result, her family was rounded up and ordered to march 
into the desert. Alice and her brother were too young, of course, at 
that age to walk, so her parents had to put them in boxes on either 
side of a donkey and march into the desert.
  When they arrived in Aintab, her mother befriended their Turkish 
neighbors, and these neighbors ultimately enabled them to get a permit 
which allowed Alice and her family to escape. Alice moved to the United 
States in 1980, and became a citizen of the U.S. just 5 years later. 
And, as a survivor, she says she wants to, ``see justice so that the 
words `never again' become a reality.''
  So, while I am a Member of Congress, I will always remember Alice's 
words and her wish. We must fully recognize the friendship with our 
allies in Turkey today, but we cannot change nor should we forget the 
past. I hope that there can be some reconciliation between Turkey and 
Armenia, and that a proper acknowledgement of the crimes of the past 
can now allow them to move forward into a future of peace and also of 
mutual understanding.

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