[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 59 (Tuesday, April 24, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E636-E637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STOP DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 24, 2012

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 97th Anniversary of the 
terrible period of atrocities committed against the Armenian people by 
the leaders of the Ottoman Empire and immediate subsequent Turkish 
government that is known as the Armenian Genocide.
  Every year I have been in Congress, I have marked this solemn 
anniversary remembering the victims of this genocide and the expulsion 
of tens of thousands of Armenians from their homes and homeland, and 
honoring the survivors of one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th 
Century. These survivors and their descendants have helped awaken and 
teach the world to the horrors of genocide and the necessity of 
standing up to the forces of denial.
  This year, however, Mr. Speaker, I come before this House angry and 
frustrated by the

[[Page E637]]

refusal of my own government to recognize and identify the events from 
1915 to 1923 as the Armenian Genocide. It doesn't seem to make a 
difference if the White House is occupied by a Republican or a 
Democrat, no one has the political courage to call the Armenian 
Genocide by name. I am always told that now is not the right time to 
take such an action.
  When will be the right time, Mr. Speaker? When the last survivor, the 
last eye-witness to the genocide has passed away? Every year, when I 
join the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Worcester, 
Massachusetts, there are fewer and fewer survivors.
  I understand the need for careful political consideration of these 
matters, but we have waited too long as it is.
  It is past time to recognize the Armenian Genocide, by name, Mr. 
Speaker. I call on the President to do so, now, this year, for the sake 
of the last survivors of this atrocity and in honor of all of those who 
perished.

                          ____________________