[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 27 (Friday, February 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E292-E293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    COMMEMORATING THE SUMGAIT POGROMS AGAINST AZERBAIJANI ARMENIANS

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                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 18, 2011

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, the 26th and 27th of February mark the 23rd 
anniversary of a violent and horrific attack against Azerbaijani 
citizens of Armenian descent. The 1988 attacks occurred in the town of 
Sumgait in Soviet Azerbaijan. Dozens of Armenians were killed, and 
hundreds more were wounded. During the pogrom, Armenian women and 
children were raped and people were set on fire and beaten to death 
while police stood by, unwilling or unable to intervene.
  The violence touched off a broader attack against Azerbaijan's ethnic 
Armenians, ultimately resulting in a war with Nagorno-Karabakh in which 
tens of thousands of people were killed. The conflict persists and 
remains unresolved today, as does the military blockade of the Nagorno-
Karabakh Republic. The pogroms precipitated a massive refugee situation 
displacing hundreds of thousands of people, virtually eliminating 
Azerbaijan's once-significant Armenian population.
  Mr. Speaker, as people of conscience, this is a remembrance we must 
all engage in. For me, it is also a very personal remembrance. My own 
family members fled the slaughter of the Armenian Genocide under the 
Ottomans, and when we learned of the massacres against Armenians in 
1988, we saw history repeating itself. These vicious acts of murder, 
targeted at ethnic groups, must be forcefully condemned whenever and 
wherever we see them. Yet 96 years after the slaughter, Congress has 
yet to officially recognize the Armenian genocide.
  Without our recognition and our forceful condemnation, the cycle of 
violence will continue. Even today, Christians and other minority 
groups are being driven from Iraq by extremists, and the once large and 
diverse ethnic mosaic there is all but eradicated. Without our 
attention and action by the world community, there is no end in sight.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, let us remember the Armenians who lost their 
lives in Azerbaijan 23 years ago. And then let us take up the work that 
our principles demand of us, standing united against ethnic violence, 
discrimination, extremism and brutality, wherever we find them.

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