[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8608-H8609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RECOGNIZING U.S. RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  (Mr. GOTTHEIMER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Madam Speaker, as a proud member of the Congressional 
Armenian Caucus, I rise in recognition of yesterday's historic passage 
of H. Res. 296 to affirm the United States' recognition of the Armenian 
genocide.
  Madam Speaker, I am proud to represent many people of Armenian 
descent who live in northern New Jersey. In Bergen County, we hold an 
annual ceremony on April 24 to remember the day in 1915 when hundreds 
of Armenian intellectuals were rounded up and ultimately murdered at 
the beginning of the Armenian genocide.
  The massacre of 1.5 million Armenians, as well as Greeks, Assyrians, 
Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronities, and other Christians, by the 
Ottoman Empire constituted the 20th century's first genocide.
  As a Jewish American, the need to recognize genocide is deeply 
personal for me. My relatives lost their entire family during the Nazi 
attempt to exterminate European Jewry.

[[Page H8609]]

  I know that it is never the wrong time to bear witness and tell the 
truth. The United States should never be complicit in denying genocide.
  As a proud member of the bipartisan Armenian Caucus, co-chaired by my 
friend, Chairman Frank Pallone, I will continue working hard in 
Congress for justice on behalf of New Jersey and the Fifth 
Congressional District's great Armenian American community.

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