[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 63 (Tuesday, April 28, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E993-E994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 28, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, last week marked the 94th anniversary of the 
Armenian genocide.
  I have long been a cosponsor of a resolution introduced in multiple 
sessions of Congress which reaffirms the United States Record on the 
Armenian genocide.
  The Armenian genocide, in which 1.5 million perished, is widely 
recognized as the 20th

[[Page E994]]

century's first genocide. Raphael Lemkin, the Jewish legal scholar who 
coined the word genocide and tirelessly advocated for international law 
defining it and preventing it, was driven largely by what happened to 
the Armenians.
  Since that time the world has witnessed unfathomable horrors during 
the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Bosnia, 
Cambodia, Rwanda and still today Darfur. And too often, the world has 
been silent in the face of such brutality.
  Adolph Hitler, in describing his murderous plans and seeking to 
silence those with reservations, famously said, ``Who, after all, 
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''
  There is power in speaking the truth, even about atrocities that 
occurred nearly a century ago, so that other men with evil aims might 
not be empowered by our silence.

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