[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 60 (Thursday, April 23, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H2457-H2459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Sherman) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the Armenian 
genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.
  Now, I know a number of other Members were planning to join me--there 
has been some confusion as to the schedule--but I hope that Members 
interested in this issue would come to the floor and join me during the 
next 30 minutes.
  I would like to thank the gentleman from Long Beach, California, Mr. 
Alan Lowenthal, for being at the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, 
of which I am the ranking member, so that I can be here on the floor at 
this important time.
  Mr. Speaker, today, it is the afternoon of April 23 here in our 
Nation's Capital; but in Istanbul, it is night. It is about to be 
midnight, bringing in the 24th of April. As we are here, at this very 
hour, 100 years ago, agents of the Ottoman Government, the government 
ruling the Ottoman Empire, went out into the night to arrest the 
leadership of the Armenian community there in Istanbul, then the 
capital of the Ottoman Empire.

[[Page H2458]]

  Soon the rest of the plan went into effect. Having arrested and 
killed the leadership of the Armenian community, agents of the Ottoman 
Empire felt free to go into the ancient Armenian lands of Eastern 
Anatolia and begin a process of ethnic cleansing, to begin a process of 
mass murder, to begin a process of sending people into the desert to 
die or simply annihilating them on the spot, to begin a well-thought-
out plan of genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.
  Now, I am asked: Why is it so important that we remember this 
genocide? Well, first, genocide denial is the last step of the genocide 
itself. When I say genocide denial, you might think that, in recounting 
history of 100 years ago, that I was simply here to commemorate and to 
mourn.
  Unfortunately, the government of modern Turkey has begun and 
continued a multimillion dollar plan of threats, of lobbying, of secret 
money, all designed to deny the Armenian genocide. That genocide denial 
is the last stage of the genocide that began 100 years ago this hour.
  First, in a genocide, a people is destroyed, and then we see the 
destruction of the memory of their annihilation; but worse than 
genocide denial being the last step of a genocide, it is the first step 
of the next genocide.

  When Adolf Hitler was talking to his henchmen and they wondered 
whether they could get away with the total destruction of the Jewish 
people, he was able to turn to them, as he did, and said:

       Who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?

  This genocide denial creates the expectation among other evil men 
that they can get away with genocide. Why do we here, in the United 
States, kowtow to Turkey's demand that we fail to recognize the 
Armenian genocide?
  Last week, the European Union overwhelming passed a recognition 
recognizing not only the murders and atrocities that took place in 
Eastern Anatolia, but also using, as was appropriate, the word 
``genocide.''
  A few days before, Pope Francis used the word ``genocide'' for the 
first time in the history of the Vatican to commemorate this 100th 
anniversary of massacres. Over 40 State legislatures in our own country 
and 20 foreign governments have recognized that the acts of the Ottoman 
Empire against the Armenians in the early 20th century constituted a 
genocide.
  It is time for this Congress to do what then-Senator Barack Obama did 
and acknowledge that what happened 100 years ago today, what began 100 
years ago today, was, indeed, a genocide.
  I see that we are joined by the chair of the Foreign Affairs 
Committee. I yield now to the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce).
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California, and I 
also rise today on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
  Mr. Speaker, that period of time represented a generation of 
Armenians, a generation lost to assassination, to depravation, to 
assault, to starvation, 1.5 million souls, a half a million others left 
homeless, decades of Armenian culture and history and religion erased 
from the landscape of Anatolia; and, on this significant anniversary, 
100 years, we cannot remain silent.
  Pope Francis said it clearly when he called on the world leaders to 
``oppose such crimes with a firm sense of duty, without ceding to 
ambiguity or compromise.''
  Our National Archives is filled with thousands of pages documenting 
the premeditated extermination of the Armenian people. Our own 
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, recalled in his 
memoirs that that Ottoman Empire ``never had the slightest idea of 
reestablishing the Armenians in a new country,'' knowing that ``the 
great majority of those would . . . either die of thirst and 
starvation, or be murdered by the wild . . . desert tribes.''
  Growing up in Anaheim, I knew an elderly Armenian who had survived 
the genocide only because of a compassionate Turkish family that hid 
him from sight, and he was the only one in his village--the only 
Armenian in his village--that survived.
  The U.S. has long been a global leader in promoting human rights 
around the world. The issue of the Armenian genocide is taught in our 
textbooks. The French, Swiss, Swedish, German Governments, the Russian 
Government, they recognized the Armenian genocide, as does the EU. As a 
global leader in human rights, it is important for the U.S. to stand on 
principle and recognize the annihilation of the Armenians as genocide.
  While the Armenian genocide was the first of the 20th century, the 
blind eye cast to the slaughter of Armenians at the time was a point 
used by Hitler when he said to his officer corps: ``Who . . . speaks 
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''
  My friends, history is a continuum. Yesterday impacts today, which 
impacts tomorrow. It is much harder to get tomorrow right if we get 
yesterday wrong. The world's strength to oppose killing today is made 
greater by accountability for actions present but also past. It is 
weakened by denial of accountability of past acts. Not recognizing the 
Armenian genocide, as such, weakens us.
  I wanted to say a bit about the Near East Relief, which was the name 
of the American charity specifically organized in response to the 
Armenian genocide. I quoted our Ambassador at the time, Henry 
Morgenthau, and he very much urged support for this effort.
  Through public rallies and church collections and with the assistance 
of charitable organizations and foundations, that committee raised 
millions in his campaign to save the starving Armenians as the campaign 
went across the country with that theme.
  Between 1915 and 1930, when it ended operations, Near East Relief 
administered an amazing $117 million in assistance. It delivered food, 
clothing, and materials for shelter by the shipload from America. It 
set up refugee camps in clinics and hospitals, orphanages, and centers 
for vocational training.
  Near East Relief is credited for having cared for 130,000 Armenian 
orphans scattered across a region that stretched from Tbilisi to 
Yerevan to Istanbul, Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem. Where they could 
find those orphans, they cared for those orphans.
  Near East Relief was an act which quite literally kept a people, a 
nation, alive. Unfortunately, since 1950, hundreds of Armenian 
religious, historic, and cultural sites have been confiscated. They 
have been destroyed. They have been vandalized.
  Turkish leaders must act now to prevent losing any more. The United 
States must keep pressing Turkish leaders until they commit to 
protecting these sites and to return all confiscated church properties 
to their rightful owners.
  In addition, we must work to protect those Armenians who are living 
under the threat of violence today.

                              {time}  1415

  Armenians in Syria are increasingly targeted for violence by Islamist 
terrorists due to their religious beliefs, and, in Nagorno-Karabakh, 
Armenians have suffered under the greatest escalation of violence along 
the line of conflict in 20 years.
  As we remember the victims of the first genocide of the 20th century, 
let us also commit to working for the safety and freedom of their 
descendents. Such efforts would be a fitting and needed tribute to the 
innocent victims of the Armenian genocide.
  Mr. SHERMAN. I thank the distinguished chairman of the Foreign 
Affairs Committee. I want to associate myself with his comments and 
particularly thank him for focusing our attention on the struggles of 
the people of Artsakh.
  Mr. Speaker, one should remember that, with the support of the 
Government of Turkey, the Government of Azerbaijan has threatened to 
shoot down civilian airplanes headed to the Stepanakert Airport. Those 
are the kinds of threats and intimidation that the people of Armenia 
and of Nagorno-Karabakh face today.
  I yield to the gentleman also from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) if he 
requests.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Let me thank my colleagues from California for 
taking the time and effort to come here and to put these very important 
expressions of outrage into the Congressional Record.
  Mr. Speaker, yes, we are outraged that people today would even 
consider not acknowledging the fact that there

[[Page H2459]]

was a genocide that took place 100 years ago.
  I am a friend of Turkey's. I believe that the Turkish people and the 
people of the United States need to be close. We were in the cold war, 
and I am grateful to their contributions to our security over the 
years; but this doesn't mean that we should not be totally honest with 
each other and with them as friends in that all of us have made 
mistakes. Certainly, the United States has committed errors in its past 
that we should agree to acknowledge.
  In this demonstration today, we are putting ourselves in solidarity 
with the families of those who were victimized 100 years ago by the 
Armenian genocide. We also express ourselves to our friends in Turkey 
that this is the time to just acknowledge that, in the past, mistakes 
were made and that, indeed, it is time to move on and to make sure that 
people today in Turkey are treated with greater respect for their 
rights and in continued cooperation with the United States and with 
other free people in the world.
  I thank my friend Mr. Brad Sherman, who has been a leader on this 
issue, for acknowledging and being here today to make sure that this 
gets into the Congressional Record on this very important day.
  Mr. SHERMAN. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here on the House floor where we, today, should be 
voting on a resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide. Several of 
us, I believe including the gentleman from California, introduced the 
Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution, but that resolution is 
not on the floor today because of the pressures, arguments, and an 
incredibly expensive lobbying campaign by the Turkish Government.
  It was 100 years ago today, as I pointed out in the beginning, that 
650 writers, lawyers, poets, doctors, priests, and politicians were 
rounded up, deported, and murdered by the Ottoman Government. No one 
should give any credence to the argument that somehow these were a few 
individuals who were acting alone, that this was not a coordinated 
governmental campaign. There were 1 million to 1.5 million people who 
died, and it was because of a premeditated and carefully planned effort 
by the Ottoman Government.
  Now, we are told that Turkey is an ally of the United States and 
that, therefore, we dare not recognize the genocide here on the House 
floor.
  First, I believe that there is nothing that we could do that is more 
important for the people of Turkey than to recognize the genocide and 
to urge them to do so as well. How will Turkey be a great country in 
the future if it is so focused on lying about its past? What 
relationship would we have with the government in Berlin if it were 
engaged in a Holocaust denial? Who in the world would trust American 
leadership if the government here in Washington were lying or denying 
slavery? Every nation has a past. Every nation ought to honestly come 
to grips with that past.
  Then we are told that we cannot recognize the genocide because of 
threats from the Turkish Government.
  Never have I been more ashamed of this Congress than in its kowtowing 
to threats that turn out to be not only outrageous but illusory. Turkey 
threatened harsh retribution for those countries that recognized the 
genocide and then took only token steps against Canada, France, 
Germany, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, and 10 other countries. Some 40 
American State legislatures have recognized the Armenian genocide and 
have not lost a single dollar of exports to Turkey. The greatest 
attempt by the Turkish Government to muzzle a national legislature was 
their effort, roughly a decade ago, to prevent France from recognizing 
the genocide. They threatened an economic boycott. In the 6 years that 
followed France's courageous recognition of the genocide, exports from 
France to Turkey increased fourfold.
  The only thing worse than kowtowing to ridiculous and outrageous 
threats is kowtowing to ridiculous and outrageous threats that turn out 
to be illusory paper tigers.
  Finally, I have to comment on just how outrageous it is for Turkey to 
be threatening the United States, because look at what we have done for 
Turkey.
  In the years since World War II, we have saved them from communism 
and the Soviet Union. We disbursed over $23 billion in aid. We 
prevented the creation of a fully sovereign and independent Kurdish 
state. We helped build the pipeline that brings them oil today, and we 
have been the loudest voice in urging that Turkey be admitted to the 
European Union. After we have done all of that, they say it is not 
enough and that we have to be accomplices with them in denying and in 
hiding the first genocide of the 20th century.

  This is outrageous. It is time for this Congress to show that America 
is worthy of world leadership, not only because of our values of 
freedom and democracy, but because we have the courage to acknowledge 
the facts that actually occurred, and we are not tempted to gain some 
sort of illusory alliance advantage by denying the greatest crime that 
a nation can commit.
  I think, as we see the last persons who survived the genocide--or the 
nieces and nephews of those who died--come to the end of their days, 
that America should recognize this great genocide.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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