[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 15, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER, ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIERS PERSIST

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                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 15, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, genocide is the most terrible 
crime a people can undergo, or another people can commit. It must never 
be forgotten--to forget it would be to dull our consciences and 
diminish our own humanity. It must never be denied, but fully 
acknowledged--otherwise any meaningful attempt at reconciliation will 
be thwarted.
  Last weekend I was present as Brookdale College, the Center for 
Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide Education presented two exhibits 
and launched a book on the Armenian genocide. The exhibit A Journey to 
Life: Armenia teaches the history of the Armenian Genocide through the 
lives of local Armenian Genocide Survivors who settled in Monmouth 
County, while Illuminating Images: A Hundred Year Remembrance is an art 
exhibit created by middle school, high school and college students from 
across the county and beyond. The book released last weekend was 
Hundred-Year Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide: Celebrating the 
Lives of Armenian Genocide Survivors in Our Community, which features 
the personal histories of 54 Survivors who lived in Monmouth County. 
Everyone who contributed to these exhibits and this book has performed 
a great service to New Jersey--not only to Armenian-Americans, but to 
everyone, including those who deny the genocide. They opened paths to 
the truth, and therefore to a better future.
  In September 2000 I chaired a hearing on the Armenian Genocide and 
co-sponsored legislation to finally put the United States on record 
officially acknowledging it. It was a four-hour hearing, the first 
hearing the House of Representatives ever held on the Armenian 
Genocide. The testimony I heard that day, and accounts of the 
atrocities I have read in the articles and books over the years have 
shocked me deeply. The resolution H. Res. 398--vigorously opposed by 
the Clinton Administration--never got a vote.
  But just as shocking then is what we still see today: a completely 
political and callous campaign to deny the Armenian genocide.
  In 1915, there were about 2 million Armenians living in what was then 
the Ottoman Empire. They were living in a region that they inhabited 
for 2,500 years. By 1923, well over 90 percent of these Armenians had 
disappeared. Most of them, as many as 1.5 million, were dead. The 
remainder had been forced into exile.
  There is no lack of historical record. In fact, we only have to 
listen to the words of the US Ambassador to Turkey at the time, Henry 
Morgenthau, who called it a ``campaign of race extermination.''
  We only have to listen to the British, French, and Russian 
governments who said the Young Turks committed a ``crime against 
humanity,'' the first time in history that charge was ever made by one 
state against another.
  And we only have to listen to the government of Turkey itself, which 
tried and convicted a number of high-ranking Young Turk officials for 
their role in what the Turkish government's indictment called, ``the 
massacre and destruction of the Armenians.''
  When the term genocide was invented in 1944 to describe the 
systematic destruction of an entire people, its author Raphael Lemkin 
explained the term by saying it was ``the sort of thing Hitler did to 
the Jews and the Turks did to the Armenians.''
  The campaign to deny this genocide--often driven by the Turkish 
government--is repulsive. It is a slap in the face to Armenians 
everywhere. It is this denial that keeps the Armenian genocide a 
burning issue and prevents much needed healing of old wounds. Armenians 
are unfortunately not alone in suffering the hurt and pain that stems 
from the denial of truth. The international community failed the 
victims of the Holocaust, China, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, 
Ethiopia, Rwanda, Bosnia, DRC, Darfur, Syria to name a few.
  That means that we here in the United States, and that means not only 
the Congress but also the President, have the responsibility to speak 
truthfully and to speak boldly about the past in order to secure our 
future. We must write and speak the truth so that generations to come 
will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
  Only 20 nations around the world have recognized the Armenian 
Genocide. That includes Canada as well as eleven EU countries including 
France, Germany Italy, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, 
Poland, Slovakia, Greece and Cypress. Conspicuously absent from the 
list of nations that have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide 
is the United States of America.
  When political leaders fail to lead or denounce violence, the void is 
not only demoralizing to the victims but silence actually enables the 
wrongdoing. Silence by elected officials in particular conveys 
approval--or at least acquiescence--and can contribute to a climate of 
fear and a sense of vulnerability.
  History has taught us that silence is not an option. We must do more.

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