[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 171 (Tuesday, October 29, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8559-H8568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AFFIRMING THE UNITED STATES RECORD ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 655, I call up
the resolution (H. Res. 296) affirming the United States record on the
Armenian Genocide and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 655, the
resolution is considered read.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
[[Page H8560]]
H. Res. 296
Whereas the United States has a proud history of
recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing
of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to
1923, and providing relief to the survivors of the campaign
of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans,
Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians;
Whereas the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United States
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized
and led protests by officials of many countries against what
he described as the empire's ``campaign of race
extermination'', and was instructed on July 16, 1915, by
United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the
``Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian
persecution'';
Whereas President Woodrow Wilson encouraged the formation
of the Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress,
which raised $116,000,000 (over $2,500,000,000 in 2019
dollars) between 1915 and 1930, and the Senate adopted
resolutions condemning these massacres;
Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ``genocide'' in
1944, and who was the earliest proponent of the United
Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example
of genocide in the 20th century;
Whereas, as displayed in the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military
commanders to attack Poland without provocation in 1939,
dismissed objections by saying ``[w]ho, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?'', setting the
stage for the Holocaust;
Whereas the United States has officially recognized the
Armenian Genocide, through the United States Government's May
28, 1951, written statement to the International Court of
Justice regarding the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, through President Ronald
Reagan's Proclamation No. 4838 on April 22, 1981, and by
House Joint Resolution 148, adopted on April 8, 1975, and
House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on September 10, 1984;
and
Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention
Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441) establishes that atrocities
prevention represents a United States national interest, and
affirms that it is the policy of the United States to pursue
a United States Government-wide strategy to identify,
prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by
``strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of
foreign assistance to support appropriate transitional
justice measures, including criminal accountability, for past
atrocities'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that it is the policy of the United States
to--
(1) commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official
recognition and remembrance;
(2) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise
associate the United States Government with denial of the
Armenian Genocide or any other genocide; and
(3) encourage education and public understanding of the
facts of the Armenian Genocide, including the United States
role in the humanitarian relief effort, and the relevance of
the Armenian Genocide to modern-day crimes against humanity.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution shall be debatable for 1
hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority
member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) and the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
General Leave
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
to insert extraneous material on H. Res. 296.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the resolution before us is an important measure to set
the record straight on the atrocities suffered by the Armenian people
at the hands the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.
We know what happened in this dark period of history. Between 1915
and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were murdered. This was a genocide, and
it is important that we call this crime what it was.
Many American politicians, diplomats, and institutions have rightly
recognized these atrocities as a genocide, including America's
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, Henry Morgenthau, and
later, President Ronald Reagan.
It is time that we set the record straight. Only by shining a light
on the darkest parts of our history can we learn to not repeat them.
And properly acknowledging what has occurred is a necessary step in
achieving some measure of justice for the victims.
H. Res. 296 sticks to the historical facts. It is a good, commonsense
measure with broad bipartisan support.
I want to thank Mr. Schiff, the resolution's author, as well as Ms.
Eshoo, Ms. Speier, Ms. Shalala, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Pallone, Mr.
Bilirakis, Mr. Smith, and the many other bipartisan champions of this
issue for their persistent, steadfast pursuit of recognition for the
suffering the Armenian people endured.
I strongly support this measure, and I urge all my colleagues to do
the same. With its passage, we put Congress on the right side of
history, properly acknowledging and condemning this horrific genocide.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, when the term ``genocide'' was created in 1944 to
describe the systematic destruction of an entire people. Its author,
Raphael Lemkin, explained the term by saying: ``It's the sort of thing
Hitler did to the Jews and the Turks did to the Armenians.''
When he ordered the invasion of Poland in 1939, Adolf Hitler said:
``Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''
Mr. Speaker, in the year 2000, and again in the year 2015, I chaired
two congressional hearings on the Armenian genocide. In 2000, the House
was moving to pass a bipartisan resolution by Congressmen Radanovich
and Bonior, H. Res. 398.
After hearing fact-based, eloquent testimony from Congressmen James
Rogan and David Bonior, followed by the State Department, history
professors, and then witnesses from both the Armenian and the Turkish
side, my subcommittee successfully marked up H. Res. 398 for
consideration by the full committee.
Ambassador Marc Grossman, however, testified at the hearing that
President Bill Clinton was against the Armenian genocide resolution.
That opposition proved to be very significant, and as we were moving
with the highest expectations toward passage, President Clinton's
National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, took the extraordinary step of
admonishing Speaker Hastert not to bring it to the floor. And he caved.
The resolution never even got a vote.
In 2007, Chairman Tom Lantos, like Chairman Henry Hyde before him,
reported the resolution out of committee, sponsored by Congressmen
Schiff and Radanovich; although it never got out of the committee in
2000, but he wanted it to. That was H. Res. 106. That too never made to
the floor.
Mr. Speaker, that changes today. The Affirming the United States
Record on the Armenian Genocide, H. Res. 296, is a sense of Congress
resolution that commemorates the Armenian genocide through official
recognition and remembrance.
The resolution wisely notes that the United States has officially
recognized the Armenian genocide through the U.S. Government's May 1951
written statement to the International Court of Justice regarding the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
through President Ronald Reagan's proclamation, Number 4838, on April
22, 1981, and by H.J. Res. 148, adopted in 1975, and H.J. Res. 247,
adopted in September of 1984.
The resolution also points out that the U.S. played a major role in
the humanitarian relief efforts and, of course, the Near East Relief
agency saved tens of thousands of Armenians and others. As a matter of
fact, the historian, Howard Sachar, noted it ``quite literally kept an
entire nation alive,'' and that is reflected in the resolution.
Yet, today, the Armenian genocide is the only genocide of the 20th
century where survivors, family, and all those who care about this
important issue, have been subjected to the ongoing outrage of a
massive, well-funded, aggressive campaign of genocide denial, openly
sustained and lavishly funded by the State authority, in this case, the
Government of Turkey.
The Turkish Government underwrites a disgraceful disinformation
campaign to confuse the historical
[[Page H8561]]
record. It often employs lobbyists in this town to carry that message
forward.
Mr. Speaker, my 2015 hearing marked the 100th year since the
beginning of the genocide; and I appropriately entitled it: A Century
of Denial: The Armenian Genocide and the Ongoing Quest For Justice.
As Pope Francis said at his Mass marking the 100th year of genocide:
``Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it.''
Mr. Speaker, the facts of the genocide were reported throughout the
world as they were happening, corroborated immediately afterward by
survivors and even some of the perpetrators, and have been amply
documented by the historians, and in one particular book that I have
read, by Ambassador Morgenthau, who was our U.S. Ambassador
contemporaneously, at the time, to the Ottoman Empire.
In 1915, as we know, there were about 2 million Armenians living in
what was then the Ottoman Empire, now Turkey. They were living in the
region that they had inhabited for 2,500 years or more.
By 1923, however, over 90 percent of these Armenians had disappeared.
Most of them, an estimated 1.5 million, were slaughtered. Most of them
were death-marched into the desert, or shot, and many of the women were
raped. The remainder, the remnant was forced into exile.
U.S. Ambassador Morgenthau wrote: ``When the Turkish authorities gave
the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the
fact.''
The Encyclopedia for the Armenian Genocide states: ``During the
march, many Armenians were killed indiscriminately by Ottoman forces,
which left a trail of corpses along the route of the march. To break
the will of the marchers, the killings were performed with swords,
resulting in great bloodshed.'' And as they continued the march, they
were marched into the Syrian desert where they died from starvation.
At the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education
exhibit at Brookdale Community College, which my good friend and
colleague from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, knows so well as well, they
have many remembrances of people in our State and elsewhere who were
survivors.
Well, one of those survivors put it this way, and I quote her: ``Life
was a matter of trying to survive. Every morning a cart would come
around and take away the sick and the dead to be dumped into a common
grave. They had taken my brother because he was a little sick. My
crying and weeping were of no avail, especially because I was sick and
petrified of being put on the cart.''
She was one of the lucky ones who survived.
Let me remind my colleagues that the Genocide Convention of 1950,
which the Turkish Government has ratified, makes clear--here is what
the Genocide Convention says, and the Armenian genocide fits this to a
T.
The definition says this: ``Genocide means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of that group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. . . . `'
{time} 1430
In the case of the Armenians, it wasn't in part. It was in whole.
They wanted the Armenians eviscerated from the face of the Earth.
Let me just point out to my colleagues, despite Turkish Government
threats--and they do make threats. At my hearing, the Ambassador made
threats in the year 2000. Frank remembers that. It was outrageous.
Well, 28 countries and 49 U.S. States, including my own State of New
Jersey, have passed a law, resolution, or declaration recognizing the
Armenian genocide.
I ask Members to support this resolution. It is bipartisan, and it
needs to be done.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader.
(Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Engel), the chairman of the committee, for yielding. I thank Mr. Smith
for his career-long advocacy of human rights and protecting the most
vulnerable, not only in this country but throughout the world.
Mr. Smith and I had the opportunity to travel behind the Iron Curtain
when it existed, talking about human rights, talking about the right to
immigrate, the right to worship, the right to freedom of speech. We
talked about the Helsinki Final Act. He and I were both members of the
Helsinki Commission for a couple of decades together. He and I visited
Turkey together, talking about particularly the freedom of the press
and how many members and how many journalists were imprisoned.
Mr. Smith, Mr. Engel, and I, and certainly Mr. Schiff, and so many
others have been supporters of this resolution for a very long time. It
has not come to the floor. One of my duties as the majority leader is
to bring bills to the floor, and I am proud, along with the chairman
and the ranking member, to bring this bill to the floor.
This resolution, Mr. Speaker, recognizes the horrific and systematic
efforts to commit genocide against the Armenian people a century ago.
There can be no denial of the Armenian genocide, which is evidenced by
historical documentation and the emotional scars still borne by the
descendants of its survivors. It was a campaign of ethnic cleansing
committed by the Ottoman Empire during and after the First World War,
and it led to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians alongside other
targeted groups.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Smith referenced Ambassador Morgenthau, who was our
Ambassador at this period of time. He said this: ``When the Turkish
authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely
giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well,
and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to
conceal the fact.''
He went on to say: ``I am confident that the whole history of the
human race contains no such horrible episode as this.'' Of course, we
were, tragically, to see an even greater Holocaust, in terms of numbers
of lives lost, just some 30 years later.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, the British Ambassador to the United
States, in an October 1915 speech, said this: ``The massacres are the
result of a policy which, as far as can be ascertained, has been
entertained for some considerable time''--I want to read this
language--``considered for some considerable time by the gang of
unscrupulous adventurers who are now in possession of the Government of
the Turkish Empire. They hesitated to put it in practice until they
thought the favorable moment had come, and that moment seems to have
arrived about the month of April.''
The reason I bring that up is this resolution is not anti the present
Turkish Government. The sanctions bill will stand for that. This is
about something that happened historically, that if not recognized may
well happen again. When you say, ``Never again,'' you must recognize
what the ``never again'' is.
I have talked to Turkish Ambassadors and others for over a quarter of
a century as a Member of the Congress of the United States and said to
them this is not about your government; this is about, as the British
Ambassador says, a gang of thugs who took over your government over 100
years ago.
I regret that our Turkish friends have not recognized this as our
German friends have recognized their genocide and said this was wrong
because if they tell their people this is wrong, it is more likely that
it will not be repeated.
Mr. Speaker, as the House joins in condemnation of that genocide and
memorializes its victims, let us also keep our attention focused on
populations today that are being subjected to ethnic cleansing and
forced relocation. From the Rohingya to the Uighurs,
[[Page H8562]]
from the people in Darfur to the Kurdish population being forced from
their homes in Syria as we speak, we must declare, loudly and clearly:
Never again. Never again. Sadly, ``never'' is now.
In particular, our Kurdish allies, who fought so courageously to help
us defeat ISIS, are being forced to leave their homes by Turkey's
campaign to seize control of northern Syria. Let today's action in this
House be a reminder, Mr. Speaker, to President Erdogan and his
government: The United States is watching. The American people will not
turn our eyes away. Neither will we turn our eyes away from the
millions of others in Syria who have been displaced and the hundreds of
thousands who have been killed, who have been bombed, gassed, and
brutalized by the Assad regime and its enablers.
That is why it is important to recognize the genocide perpetrated
against the Armenian people so that we will recognize other such
actions, which because of their race or their color or their ethnicity
or some other distinction subject them to mass murder.
Mr. Speaker, we need to let the American people's Representatives
give a clear message to our Armenian brothers and sisters, to our
Kurdish brothers and sisters: We see you. We will not abandon you.
Never again.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.
I thank my colleague and good friend, Mr. Hoyer, for his comments. We
did travel so many times to the Soviet Union, to the Eastern Bloc
countries, and to Turkey. We raised issues methodically, persistently.
But this issue has always been one of those unresolved, festering sores
that if we could get it right--and this House going on record I think
is the beginning of that process. So I thank him for his leadership
over these years, for his friendship, and, above all, for that very
eloquent statement.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Schiff), the author of this important resolution, the
vice chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, and the chair of the
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 296, which I
introduced along with Representative Bilirakis to recognize and
commemorate the Armenian genocide.
This is a vote that I have fought for 19 years to cast. My wonderful
colleagues, Anna Eshoo and Jackie Speier, have fought far longer than I
have. It is one that tens of thousands of my constituents, my Armenian
American constituents, have waited decades to see. It is a moment that
so many have worked and struggled and prayed for, a moment when the
House of Representatives refused to be enlisted in the cause of
genocide denial.
This April would have marked the 104th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide, the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians, and the
displacement of millions more by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.
Many other religious and ethnic minorities in the Ottoman Empire met
similar fates, among them the Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and others.
More than a century later, it is our solemn responsibility to
remember those who were lost, to seek justice and restitution, and to
educate Americans and those around the world about the crime of
genocide.
The facts of the genocide are horrific and undisputed by historians.
They were recorded by American diplomats serving in the Ottoman Empire
at the time who bore witness in official cables to the annihilation of
the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire, a crime that at the time
had no name.
Though it lacked a name, there was no doubt in the observers of the
time that they were witnessing a crime on a massive and industrial
scale. The U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau,
would recall later: ``I am confident that the whole history of the
human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great
massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when
compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.''
It was only decades later that Raphael Lemkin, a Holocaust survivor,
coined the term ``genocide'' to describe the atrocities that have been
visited upon the Jews as well as the Armenians.
I have sat with survivors of the genocide, men and women, their
numbers dwindling year after year, and heard them recall the
destruction of their lives and the loss of all they had known. As
children, they were forced from their homes and saw their families
beaten, raped, and murdered. They fled across continents and oceans to
build lives in this Nation, in Armenia, and around the world.
For them and for their descendants, the word ``genocide'' is sacred
because it means that the world has not and will not forget. To deny
genocide, on the other hand, is profane. It is, in the words of Elie
Wiesel, ``a double killing.''
Mr. Speaker, it is always the right time to recognize genocide, but
it is particularly so today. For when we see the images of terrified
Kurdish families in northern Syria, loading their possessions into cars
or carts and fleeing their homes headed to nowhere except from Turkish
bombs and marauding militias, how can we truly say the crimes of a
century ago are in the past?
We cannot. We cannot pick and choose which crimes against humanity
are convenient to speak about. We cannot cloak our support of human
rights in euphemisms. We cannot be cowed into silence by a foreign
power.
What we can do, what we must do, Mr. Speaker, is state the facts. We
can say that the Ottoman Empire committed this grotesque crime against
the Armenians, but their campaign of extermination failed, and that,
above all, we will never forget and will never again be silenced.
I am grateful for the leadership of Mr. Engel, Mr. McCaul, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), and the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith), and so many Members on both sides of the aisle who
have fought for recognition for decades. I urge every Member of the
House to join today in supporting H. Res. 296.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Eshoo), an important leader on these issues for many
years.
{time} 1445
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, first I would like to pay tribute to the
chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Engel, for helping to
bring this to the floor; to everyone that is part of, from both sides
of the aisle, the Armenian caucus in the House; and to my sister,
friend, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who shares this heritage with me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution, H. Res.
296, which affirms the Armenian genocide.
This is a historic day in the House of Representatives, and it is one
that I have been waiting for for 27 years.
Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians--and this is a
historical fact that many people are not aware of, that there were
hundreds of thousands of Assyrians, Greeks, Arameans, Maronites, and
other Christians who were systematically slaughtered by the Ottoman
Empire.
This is deeply personal for me. I am the only Member of Congress of
Armenian Assyrian decent and one of only three of Armenian heritage in
the House of Representatives--I think in the entire Congress, Senate
and House.
Some of you know that I had members of my own family who were among
those that perished, and my parents fled with theirs to America. As my
father said: The best idea that was ever born was America.
What all of those who were persecuted have in common was that they
were Christians, and that is why they were hunted down and slaughtered.
This resolution not only honors my ancestors, but all of those who
perished in the first genocide of the 20th century.
The United States has been missing in action on the honor roll of
over two dozen countries, 14 of which are NATO allies, and 49 States in
our country that have formally recognized the Armenian genocide. Today,
we can end over 100 years of silence by passing this resolution.
[[Page H8563]]
Mr. Speaker, there is also a historic parallel as we are considering
this resolution, and that is that Turkey is pursuing the ethnic
cleansing of Kurds in Syria, as we meet today.
As Pope Francis declared when he visited the Armenian genocide
memorial in Yerevan in 2016: ``Memories should not be watered down or
forgotten; memory is a source of peace and of the future.''
So today we remember and we say to all those who perished: We
remember. We love you.
Mr. Speaker, we set an example for the young people of our country
that the moral authority of the United States is well and alive as we
pass this resolution.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank Anna Eshoo for her
leadership throughout many decades on this issue. It was her idea to
bring it up on the floor today. I want to thank her for that. Of course
she had to work within the leadership to get it done, but I thank her
for recommending that.
Mr. Speaker, I want to remind Members that, in 2018, Anna Eshoo and I
wrote the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act. It was
signed by President Trump into law. That provided two things:
humanitarian relief for the tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis
fleeing from ISIS; it also provided an accountability piece to collect
for, hopefully, utilization in future court cases against the
perpetrators of these heinous crimes.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for that work that
we did together and, again, for her leadership on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New
York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), the acting chairwoman of the Committee
on Oversight and Reform.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on the committee and for
this resolution, and also Anna Eshoo and Chairman Schiff and so many of
my friends and colleagues for their long efforts to pass it on both
sides of the aisle.
As a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues and the
Representative of a large and vibrant Armenian community in New York
City, I strongly support H. Res. 296, affirming the United States'
record on the Armenian genocide.
104 years ago, 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by the Ottoman
Empire in the first genocide of the 20th century. Ever since, Armenian
communities from across the world, including those in my district, have
been forced to fight for recognition and justice for Turkey's denial in
so many ways, from the illegal invasion of Cypress by Turkey to the
vicious attacks on Kurds within and without the borders of Turkey.
With our vote today, the United States takes a long long overdue step
to stop Turkey from hiding the truth of its actions. The Armenian
genocide must be acknowledged by all, and in doing so, we can hope to
prevent the next genocide.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Speier), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues.
Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Engel, Chairman McCaul, and
Mr. Smith, and have a deep sense of gratitude to Congressman Schiff for
introducing H. Res. 296; and to my sister, my Armenian sister,
Congresswoman Eshoo, for helping us plot this strategy to get this bill
to the floor.
April 24, 1915, is a day that lives in infamy in the hearts and minds
of millions of Armenians worldwide. It is a day that I grew up
understanding from my Armenian mother to be one of the darkest in
history. It is the day that the Ottoman Government embarked on a
systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians, two-thirds of the
Armenian population.
This genocide is recognized in countries around the world, including
Canada, France, and Germany. It is recognized in 49 States in our Union
as the first genocide of the 20th century, yet the House of
Representatives hasn't recognized both that the genocide occurred and
that the Ottoman Empire perpetrated it.
Elie Weisel once called denying genocide--and in particular, the
Armenian genocide--a double killing, because it not only exterminates a
group of people, it murders the memory of that crime. Congress must
ensure that memory is not destroyed and those lives are honored.
As a child, I listened to my mom speak of the atrocity with pain and
fear. She is gone now, but her pain lives on in me to this very day.
By righting this terrible wrong, one that has festered for far too
long, we are alleviating that pain and sending a message that history
can't be rewritten. We are stating, in no uncertain terms, that America
will no longer abandon Armenians with feeble excuses made for a so-
called ally. We are affirming that truth is truth.
Thousands of documents totaling 37,000 pages in the National Archives
support the truth: Armenians were exterminated by Ottoman forces and
Turkish sympathizers.
In 1918, former President Theodore Roosevelt sent a letter saying:
Because the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the
war, failure to act against Turkey is to condone it and means
that all talk of guaranteeing future peace is nonsense.
Usually, these words serve as a general warning, but today they apply
to specific ongoing atrocities. We must not stand silent as Turkey
attempts the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds in Syria.
Even Russia's President Putin had said the Armenian people ``went
through one of the greatest tragedies in human history.''
Iran's former Vice President stated: ``The Ottoman Turkey Government
perpetrated genocide in 1915.''
If our rivals can talk about this, if they can take a stand,
certainly we can.
Armenian genocide, we must say it here: It happened, and it will
never happen again. We must make that commitment.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may
consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), the cosponsor of
the resolution.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, it has been more than 100 years since the
atrocities committed against innocent Armenians and other ethnic and
religious minorities at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire genocidal campaign from 1915 to 1923 killed 1.5
million Armenians, men and women and children, as well as Greeks,
Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs throughout a series of executions and
death marches.
Finally, today, we are entering into the United States Record the
Armenian genocide and the historical fact.
Today, we end a century of international silence. There will not be
another period of indifference or international ignorance to the lives
lost to systematic murder.
Genocides, wherever and whenever they occur, cannot be ignored,
whether they took place in the 20th century by the Ottoman Turks or
mid-20th century by the Third Reich and in Darfur.
Genocide must be acknowledged for what it is: a scourge on the human
race.
Genocide is genocide, Mr. Speaker, even if our so-called strategic
allies perpetrated it.
President Ronald Reagan explicitly referred to the Ottoman Empire's
actions as the genocide of the Armenians in a 1981 Holocaust
Remembrance Day speech.
Over 30 nations have formally recognized the genocide, including
France, Germany, and even Russia. Today, Mr. Speaker, the United States
is going to acknowledge it as well.
I found Pope Francis' words and explicit use of the term ``genocide''
to be another wake-up call for the world. We must acknowledge the
atrocities of the past so that we might, hopefully, prevent them in the
future.
Our darkest moments as a human race have come during times when those
who knew better stood silently, making excuses for passivity and
allowing injustice and persecution to reign.
Turkey's current actions in northern Syria against our Kurdish allies
is extremely concerning, and we cannot
[[Page H8564]]
stand by and let egregious human rights violations happen. Turkey's
offensive into Syria is unacceptable behavior from a U.S. ally and so-
called secular democracy, as well as a NATO member. It is simply
deplorable, Mr. Speaker.
We also need to make sure that other genocidal campaigns being waged
in the Middle East are also properly recognized. ISIS is a perpetrator
of genocide. Christians and other minorities are being killed solely
because of their religion, and no modern society should sit silently in
the face of such barbaric brutality.
Again, I am thankful that we are finally recognizing these atrocities
and these acts against the Armenian people. Like the earliest
Christians, the Armenians proved themselves not only survivors of
persecution, but also masters of their destinies.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Sherman), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the
Pacific, and Nonproliferation on our Foreign Affairs Committee. He has
been a leader on this issue for years.
{time} 1500
Mr. SHERMAN. American honor demands that we end our complicity in
genocide denial.
Four arguments are made against this resolution:
The first is that it is not true. No one can even make that argument
anymore. 1.5 million Armenians and countless Syrians, Greeks, and
others massacred by the Ottoman Government.
Second, they argue that Turkey is such a great ally that we should
turn a blind eye to what happened last century. Earlier this month,
Turkish forces shelled both to the left and to the right of American
military bases. American soldiers fled in unseemly haste. What a great
ally Turkey is.
Then we were told: Well, the Foreign Affairs Committee hasn't had
hearings. We have had countless hearings on this for decades,
including, also, a 4-hour markup where we passed it through the
committee, and the only argument made on the other side there was
Turkey was such a great ally. Well, last week, we had hearings in our
committee that demonstrate that Turkey is not such a great ally of the
United States.
And, finally, we were told--and this is insulting, I think--during
the rules debate by someone arguing against the rule that it is not
worth our time: 1.5 million dead.
The fact is that genocide denial is the last act of a genocide.
First, you obliterate a people; then you obliterate their memory; and,
finally, you seek to obliterate the memory of the obliteration.
And, also, genocide denial is the first step in the next genocide.
When Hitler's cadres wondered whether they could get away with the
Holocaust, he was able to reassure them by saying: Who today speaks of
the annihilation of the Armenians?
Denying genocide in the past will lead to more genocides in the
future.
Today, Germany is a great and prosperous democracy because it has
come to grips with its own past. Where would Germany be today if it
denied the Holocaust?
Turkey will become a prosperous and a modern nation only when it
recognizes the first genocide of the 20th century. The best thing we
could do for Turkey is to acknowledge the genocide and urge them to do
likewise.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and
this is, indeed, a bipartisan speech.
The fact is that many other countries have recognized this genocide,
and they have done so under tremendous Turkish pressure. For example,
France was told that they would not be able to export to Turkey if they
recognized the genocide. They did, and, in the subsequent 6 years,
French exports to Turkey quadrupled.
This genocide has been recognized by Argentina, Germany, Italy,
Belgium, and the list goes on and on. It is time for America to also
recognize the truth.
I look forward to the day, which is not true today, when scholars and
individuals in Turkey can talk about the genocide and can come to grips
with their own past instead of being threatened with incarceration for
even mentioning this debate, because Turkey will not have the rule of
law and democracy until you are free to discuss the first genocide of
the 20th century on Turkish soil.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode
Island (Mr. Cicilline), a valued member of the Foreign Affairs
Committee.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 296, a
resolution introduced by my friend Mr. Schiff to recognize the horror
of the genocide perpetuated against the Armenian people by the Ottoman
Empire between 1913 and 1925, killing 1.5 million martyrs.
There is no question that the Ottoman Empire carried out a systemic
campaign of persecution, forced removal, starvation, and murder against
Armenians, along with other Christian minorities living under Ottoman
rule.
This campaign was documented in realtime by American diplomats and
has been acknowledged in various forms by previous administrations and
Congresses, the last in 1984.
In order to prevent future genocides and mass atrocities, it is vital
that we never forget those that have already occurred. For too long, we
have allowed foreign interests to lobby the United States in favor of
turning the other way and not wholly recognizing the truth of the
Armenian genocide. That ends today.
In Rhode Island, we have a very proud Armenian community that has
demonstrated extraordinary resilience. They deserve for Congress to
acknowledge the history of their people and the truth of the Armenian
genocide. That will happen today.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa), another wonderful member of the Foreign Affairs
Committee.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support H. Res. 296, which
would establish permanent United States recognition and the ongoing
remembrance of the Armenian genocide.
I thank Chairman Engel, Ranking Member McCaul, Mr. Smith, and all of
the supporters of this resolution.
In 1915, the Ottoman Empire, as we all know, embarked upon the
systematic deportation and murder of 1.5 million Armenians. These
innocent men, women, and children became the first genocide, as we
know, in the 20th century.
Many of these survivors settled in my district in the San Joaquin
Valley, where they lived and their children have enjoyed the blessings
of liberty and lived the American Dream. This incredible, diverse
valley that I have the honor to represent we sometimes refer to as the
Land of William Saroyan, a noted Armenian author. And Fresno State
University is the only university in the United States that has a
memorial dedicated to the Armenian genocide, a very moving memorial to
their ancestors.
Yet, this brutal atrocity has not received the official recognition
it deserves. So, today, it is proper and fitting that we do so.
This is a moral issue. I call upon my colleagues to join me and more
than 110 cosponsors in supporting this long overdue passage by the
United States House of Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, the horrors of the Armenian genocide can never, ever,
ever be undone. Yet, by acknowledging the suffering of the victims
through official recognition of the Armenian genocide, we can ensure
that at least future generations will never forget.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 1 minute to
the gentleman from California (Mr. Ted Lieu), another respected member
of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr. TED LIEU of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Engel and
[[Page H8565]]
Congressman Smith for their leadership.
The United States of America should never be afraid to tell the
truth, and yet, for too long, we did not recognize the Armenian
genocide. That ends today. The House of Representatives is going to
formally recognize the Armenian genocide.
Over a century ago, the Ottoman Empire began a plan to systematically
exterminate Armenians from their land. 1.5 million Armenians were
killed across the Turkish countryside. No amount of revisionist history
or lobbying can change those facts.
Today is a historic today. Today, we tell the truth and we honor the
Armenian genocide.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, it is now my honor to yield 1 minute to the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Speaker of the House.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and,
more importantly, I thank him for bringing this very important
legislation to the floor today.
I thank Mr. Smith for his ongoing commitment to justice in the world
in terms of respecting the dignity and worth of people and not ignoring
atrocities when they happen, now and a long time ago. It is a pleasure
to work with him always.
Mr. Speaker, we have tried this bill out of committee more than one
time, and now it has come to the floor. It is an honor to speak on it,
and it is a great day for the Congress that we have that privilege.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues in solemn remembrance of
one of the great atrocities of the 20th century, the systematic murder
of more than 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children by the
Ottoman Empire.
Too often, tragically, the truth of this staggering crime has been
denied. Today, let us clearly state the facts on the floor of this
House to be etched forever into the Congressional Record: The barbarism
committed against the Armenian people was a genocide.
As international observers wrote at the time, it was a ``campaign of
race extermination,'' one that we as Members of Congress and as
freedom-loving people have a moral obligation to never forget.
If we ignore history, then we are destined to witness the mistakes of
the past be repeated. The recent attacks by the Turkish military
against the Kurdish people are a stark and brutal reminder of the
danger in our own time.
That is why it is critical, year in and year out, to reaffirm our
dedication to recognizing the Armenian genocide and to placing the U.S.
Congress firmly on the side of honesty in our history.
For that, I thank Chairman Schiff, Chairman Engel, Congresswoman
Eshoo, Armenian Caucus Co-chairs Pallone and Speier, and all who have
worked relentlessly on this critical resolution, which states that
Democrats and Republicans join to:
``Commemorate the Armenian genocide through official recognition and
remembrance;
``Reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United
States Government with denial of the Armenian genocide or any other
genocide; and
``Encourage education and public understanding of the facts of the
Armenian genocide, including the United States role in the humanitarian
relief effort, and the relevance of the Armenian genocide to modern-day
crimes against humanity.''
To honor the memory of those lost and the suffering of those who
survived, we firmly and unequivocally denounce all attempts to devalue
or minimize these heinous crimes.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a strong vote for this resolution, which is a
statement to America's commitment to human rights and to the truth.
We are blessed in our country with a large Armenian American
population, some serving--Congresswoman Speier, Congresswoman Eshoo,
and others--in this House. Every year, we come together to observe the
sadness of the genocide, but today, Mr. Speaker, we have the
opportunity. And may we have the strength and courage to always
denounce hate, violence, and bigotry; to right the wrongs of history;
and to build a future of hope, peace, and freedom for all mankind. That
is who we are as Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and others for giving us the
opportunity to state our values.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the
balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the co-chair of the congressional Armenian
caucus, who has, for many, many years, been at the forefront of
championing this very important resolution.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Engel for all of his work on
this, and I, of course, thank all of the members of the Armenian
caucus. One of the reasons that we founded the Armenian caucus was the
recognition of the Armenian genocide.
But I also have to mention that, I think, as everyone knows, without
Speaker Pelosi, this would never have come to the floor today. It is,
ultimately, her decision to bring it to the floor, and I want to thank
her immensely.
Official recognition of the Armenian genocide is a powerful reminder
that we will not turn away when we know full well that crimes against
humanity have been perpetrated. We stand here today to pay tribute to
the victims of this horrific chapter of history, to the perseverance of
those who survived, and to the Americans of Armenian descent who
continue to strengthen our country.
{time} 1515
It is our duty to honor that history with an honest, factual
statement recognizing the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as the 20th
century's first genocide. This resolution cannot undo the horrors that
the victims endured or the pain that their descendants carry with them,
but we have an obligation to speak candidly about the past. That is
directly tied to our moral responsibilities of the present.
The United States must never accept crimes against humanity, and we
must do everything in our power to prevent and stop atrocities
unfolding in real time.
What is currently taking place in Syria--the killing of the Kurds at
the hands of the Turkish President Erdogan--is unacceptable, and it is
far past time for the Turkish Government to accept its responsibility
for the systematic extermination of Armenians in the past century and
to commit to protect the dignity of every human life in this century.
I encourage my colleagues to join in supporting this long overdue
recognition of the Armenian genocide. Mr. Speaker, your vote is not
only for the Armenians but to prevent genocide in the future.
Let us note that the Ottoman Turks did not succeed. The Armenians are
still here in the United States, in the Republic of Armenia, in
Artsakh, and the American people and their Representatives will
continue to be with you.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlemen from
Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes).
Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Today the House of Representatives will affirm, finally, that we
recognize the horrors of the Armenian genocide and are committed to
remembering the victims of this crime against humanity.
Our moral standing in the world requires us to acknowledge the truth
of the Armenian genocide. For too long, we have acquiesced in Turkey's
policy of genocide denial, unwilling to risk the ire of our so-called
ally.
However, Turkey's actions against the Kurds in Syria have reinforced
what many of us have long known: Erdogan's Turkey does not stand for
human rights or religious freedom, but instead spreads authoritarianism
wherever it goes. Erdogan's disdain for democracy and contempt for an
ally was on display 2 years ago when his bodyguards attacked peaceful
demonstrators right here in our Nation's Capital.
I am pleased that later today the House will vote to impose sanctions
on Turkey for its actions in Syria. This resolution and that bill are
tied together. They are both powerful statements that we respect
fundamental
[[Page H8566]]
human rights and that we desire to stand on the right side of history.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Mrs. Lawrence).
Mrs. LAWRENCE. Mr. Speaker, today, finally, a congressional
resolution that will pay tribute to the Armenian, the Syrian, the
Greek, the Chaldean, and other lives lost, and the determination of
those who survive.
To many Americans of Armenian descent who continue to strengthen our
country today, we honor those contributions with an honest statement of
history, recognizing the massacre of 1.5 Armenians as the 20th
century's first genocide.
In the spirit of honoring these victims, I am proud to cosponsor H.
Res. 296, an official recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman and acknowledge
Mr. Schiff and my dear friend, Anna Eshoo, and all of those, Mr.
Pallone, and of all the Members who have stood tall and strong, Mr.
Smith and Mr. Engel, for this very important statement.
Let me, as a member of the Armenian Caucus, indicate that I rise with
a heavy heart, but I rise with an appreciation and an excitement that
we have come to this point.
It is important to acknowledge that as this was occurring, the United
States' record on the Armenian genocide goes back more than a century,
in fact, to July 16, 1915, when Henry Morgenthau, United States
Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led
protests by officials of many countries against what he described as
the empire's campaign of race extermination. He was instructed on July
16, 1915, by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the
``department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian
persecution.''
I rise in support of finally having this Nation take this stand.
Bloodshed and genocide should not be tolerated no matter how long we
have come to that. And so I stand with the words that we now,
therefore, will commemorate as the United States of America the
Armenian genocide through official recognition and remembrance. We will
reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United
States Government with the denial of the Armenian genocide or any other
genocide.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman from Texas an
additional 30 seconds.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of the time both Mr.
Engel, Mr. Smith, and I traveled to the Sudanese Embassy to protest the
genocide in Darfur. We can do no less.
It is not just 10 years ago, it is more than 100 years ago, at least,
that we saw this genocide. There is no embassy that maybe will arrest
us now, but I say to Turkey: It is finally time for you to acknowledge
this genocide. Tragically, you have restarted and reignited the
dastardly acts of genocide against the Kurds.
I am glad today on this day that we are acknowledging that one
genocide can be no worse than another genocide. Silence on one genocide
is silence on all genocides.
Mr. Speaker, I stand here today to support H. Res. 296 to acknowledge
the Armenian genocide by the United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary
and on Homeland Security, and as a sponsor of the legislation, I rise
in strong support of H. Res. 296, a resolution ``Affirminq the United
States Record on the Armenian Genocide,'' and I thank Mr. Schiff, the
gentleman from California and the Chairman of the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence, and Mr. Engel, the Chairman of the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs for their collaboration and hard
work in bringing this important legislation to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, the United States record on the Armenian Genocide goes
back more than a century, in fact to July 16, 1915, when Henry
Morgenthau, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to
1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries against
what he described as the empire's ``campaign of race extermination'',
and was instructed on July 16, 1915, by United States Secretary of
State Robert Lansing that the ``Department approves your procedure . .
. to stop Armenian persecution.''
The United States has a proud history of recognizing and condemning
the Armenian Genocide, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the
Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923 and providing relief to the survivors
of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians,
Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians.
Mr. Speaker, the Armenian Genocide represents the first genocide of
the 20th Century, where Ottoman Turkish authorities ordered the
systematic annihilation of more than 1.5 million Armenians, and which
Turkey carried out from 1915 to 1923 through massacres, deportations,
and death marches where hundreds of thousands were herded into the
Syrian Desert to die of thirst and starvation.
Sadly, to this day this chapter of history has yet to be admitted by
the Government of Turkey.
Many international observers, including then Ambassador and later
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, witnessed the nightmare
firsthand and reported detailed accounts of the atrocities to their
governments.
Respected organizations and eminent scholars and historians agree and
recognize the Armenian Genocide, including the Elie Wiesel Foundation
for Humanity and the renowned International Association of Genocide
Scholars.
Their judgments are supported by 53 Nobel laureates who signed an
open letter to the Government of Turkey on April 9, 2007.
Mr. Speaker, the historical record is clear, and the Armenian
Genocide is a tragic fact.
It must be acknowledged and remembered so that it will never be
repeated.
As a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, I know
that the refusal of modern-day Turkey to acknowledge one of the worst
examples of man's inhumanity in the 20th Century haunts survivors of
the Armenian Genocide, as well as their families.
As a Member of Congress, I believe this is not only an affront to the
memory of the victims and to their descendants, but it does a
disservice to the United States as it seeks to stand up for the victims
of violence today.
The issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide and helping the
Armenian people is neither a partisan nor geopolitical Issue.
Rather, it is a question of giving the Armenian people the justice
they deserve.
In doing so, we affirm the dignity of humankind everywhere.
It has been said that ``all it takes for evil to triumph, is for good
men to do nothing.''
This is one of the reasons I am proud to have joined with so many of
my colleagues in cosponsoring the resolution affirming the occurrence
of the Armenian genocide throughout my career in Congress and I will
continue to do for as long as it takes.
In recognizing the Armenian Genocide, we do not seek to persecute any
person or state; we seek to build a path that will lead to
reconciliation between Armenians and Turks.
In doing so, we will remain true to our nation's highest aspirations
for justice and peace.
It was President Lincoln who called upon the ``better angels of our
nature'' when he said in his Second Inaugural Address that all
Americans should ``do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.''
Mr. Speaker, the Armenian Genocide has been officially recognized by
42 states, which have gone on public record rejecting any claim or
assertion that denies the occurrence of one of history's worst crimes
against humanity.
I believe it is time for us to join these nations in that endeavor by
passing H. Res. 296, the ``Affirmation of the United States Record on
the Armenian Genocide Resolution.''
Mr. Speaker, I ask for a moment of silence in memory of the millions
of silenced voices and interrupted lives of those Armenians who
perished between 1915 and 1923 in the genocide committed by the Ottoman
Empire.
I urge all Members to join me in voting for this critically important
resolution, H. Res. 296.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that
there are no further speakers other than the chairman, and I would like
to close.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
As I mentioned earlier, the Encyclopedia of the Armenian Genocide
states:
During the march many Armenians were killed
indiscriminately by the Ottoman forces, which left a trail of
corpses along the route of the march. To break the will of
the marchers, they used swords, resulting in great bloodshed.
Marchers who survived these attacks faced starvation, as no
provisions whatsoever were made. Many elderly
[[Page H8567]]
and infirm marchers died in this way during the march. This
significantly reduced numbers of marchers who, upon finally
making it into the Syrian desert, were put into concentration
camps and then released into the scorching desert with no
food or water and to a certain death.
Mr. Speaker, despite having ratified the Genocide Convention back in
1950, the Turkish Government has waged an amazingly deceitful campaign
of denial and has done so over the course of decades using a variety of
means to bully, intimidate, and punish Turkish citizens who dare to
acknowledge the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire beginning in
1915.
Ankara also seeks to intimidate nations. Many nations have refused to
be intimidated and to be bullied: Poland, Germany, the Holy See, Italy,
Russia, France, Holland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Austria, Bulgaria, the European Parliament,
Luxembourg, Sweden, Chile, Argentina, Lithuania, Venezuela, Slovakia,
Canada, Uruguay, Switzerland, Lebanon, Belgium, Greece, and Cyprus all
have come out strongly and acknowledged the Armenian genocide. We need
to do the same today.
Over the years, several U.S. Presidents have acknowledged the cruelty
and the carnage. But it was Ronald Reagan who called it an Armenian
genocide. He said: ``Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and
the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it--and like too many
other persecutions of too many other people--the lessons of the
Holocaust must never be forgotten.''
To be sure, Presidents Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Bush, said strong
words. They had strong words to describe it. President Bush called it
the ``forced exile and the annihilation'' of 1.5 million Armenians.
President Obama had promised to recognize the genocide but didn't. A
Los Angeles Times story on April 21, 2015, says it all: ``Armenian
hopes crushed as Obama decides not to use the word `genocide'.''
It does matter, Mr. Speaker. Genocide is a very precise term. It has
real meaning in international law because of the Genocide Convention,
and all Presidents and Members of Congress, I hope, will stand up and
say that word.
Let me remind my colleagues, because it is referenced again in the
resolution, that back in 1984 we passed a joint resolution to designate
April 24, 1985--it didn't pass in the Senate, but it did pass here--and
it said in part that April 24, 1985, is designated as ``National Day of
Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man'' and authorized the President
to observe the day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, and
especially for the 1.5 million people of Armenian ancestry who were the
victims of genocide perpetrated in Turkey between 1915 and 1923.
So I say to my colleagues who are watching, we have gone on record
before. Let's not be intimidated by Turkey, Erdogan, and others.
I would like to say a special thanks to the tenacious leaders of the
Armenian National Committee of America, the Armenian Assembly and the
Armenian diaspora for persistently encouraging Congress to step up and
pass this kind of resolution. After a century of denial, obfuscation,
and lies by Turkey, it is time to affirm and reiterate the truth of the
Armenian genocide and honor the victims, the survivors, and their
families.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for the
purpose of closing.
Mr. Speaker, the resolution before us is an important measure for
Congress to set the record straight and to call out the atrocities
suffered by the Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in
the early 20th century as a genocide.
I, again, want to thank the author of this measure, Mr. Schiff, along
with the many champions for the Armenian people in the House. I want to
congratulate the Armenian American community which has worked for so
many years to try to get this resolution to the House floor and then
get it passed.
We are really making history today, and I thank my colleagues on both
sides of the aisle: Mr. Smith, and all the others who spoke. I think
this is very important, and I think we will be sending a very, very
strong message all around the world.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important
resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my
concerns with House Resolution 296, which will be debated on the House
floor today.
This counterproductive resolution does not tell the full story of the
region during World War I and reopens a wound between Greeks, Turks,
Armenians, Kurds, and other ethnic groups in the region. Favoring the
preferred storyline of one of these groups without considering
information provided by other ethnic groups in the region would serve
as a failure on our part to do our due diligence and hear out all sides
on this matter of historic significance. No hearings have been held on
this resolution and it has come to the floor without being marked up by
the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Looking into the future, this resolution fails to help improve
relations between the states of Turkey and Armenia. Last year, the
Armenian government annulled normalization protocols that were signed
by the two governments on October 10, 2009. It is in our best national
security interests that we work with both governments to help
facilitate the revival of the normalization of relations between the
two nations in order to keep the region at peace without any escalation
towards conflict.
Lastly, the passage of this resolution will only drive our NATO ally,
Turkey, into the open arms of Vladimir Putin and Russia. Already, the
Turkish government has purchased and taken delivery of the Russian
developed S-400 anti-aircraft weapons system. The integration of this
military system undermines the commitments made by all NATO allies to
move away from Russian military systems. Passing this resolution for
the sole purpose of poking Turkey in the eye will only serve as another
reason for Turkey to pursue a separation from NATO.
Mr. Speaker, I will be voting present on House Resolution 296 as I
believe we have failed to do our due diligence in investigating this
matter and exploring the possible unintended consequences that may
arise upon passage of this resolution.
Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.
Res. 296, Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
I am honored to have supported this resolution my entire tenure in
Congress. Although it should not have taken this long, today is a
historic day in that the House is finally acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide, recognizing the heroic efforts of many in our government to
help the Armenian people, and honoring the victims of this tragedy.
H. Res. 296 acknowledges the systematic and deliberate annihilation
of millions of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire. The resolution
recognizes the courage and leadership shown at the time by our
ambassador Henry Morgenthau, our government, and the American people
who provided relief and shelter to the victims of the genocide.
Thousands of victims, mostly women and children, were saved by the
people of our nation who gave humanitarian assistance to the refugees.
Many of the Armenians who fled this crisis immigrated to the United
States where they found the freedom and prosperity that our nation
provides. The descendants of these genocide survivors have created the
strong, vibrant, and patriotic Armenian-American community that our
nation is blessed with today. We must honor the sacrifice of their
forefathers and reaffirm the U.S. record on the Armenian Genocide.
I would like to thank the many advocates in and outside of Congress
who have played an integral role in ths legislation. Our colleagues
Congressman Adam Schiff and Congressman Frank Pallone have been
tireless advocates for this resolution and should be applauded for
their work in getting us here today. The Armenian-American community
has stayed committed to recognizing the incredible injustice their
ancestors suffered even while many challenged their bearing witness to
the truth.
Armenian-Americans have sought formal recognition of this genocide,
not only to help heal their own community, but to ensure genocide never
happens again. The Armenian-American community is always first to speak
out regarding modern-day crimes against humanity, such as in Rwanda and
Darfur.
Mr. Speaker, like Armenian-Americans I ask my colleagues to support
this resolution, not only to recognize the genocides of the past, but
to prevent genocide in the future.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 655, the previous question is ordered on
the resolution and the preamble.
The question is on the adoption of the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
[[Page H8568]]
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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