[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.
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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
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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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