[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5564]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Forbes). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Horn) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, once again, I join my colleagues and the world 
in remembering those who suffered the horrifying events of the Armenian 
genocide. The tragedy of lost lives through ethnic cleansing must never 
be forgotten.
  The Armenian genocide marked the beginning of a barbaric practice 
beginning in the 20th century. More than a million and a half Armenians 
were killed and forcibly departed. The Ottoman Turks brutally uprooted 
and systematically eliminated Armenians from their homeland. To this 
day, the Turkish Government continues to deny that millions of 
Armenians were killed simply because they were Armenian.
  As an educator, I believe we must emphasize the role of education 
throughout the world. We must continue to forbid actions of racial 
intolerance and religious persecution which have led to so many cases 
of ethnic cleansing. The tragedies of the past 2 decades, including 
those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo, attest to this fact. We must 
continue teaching our children tolerance so the next generation is 
armed with the knowledge and the power to defeat racial and religious 
persecution wherever it arises.
  We refuse to acknowledge and understand racial and religious 
intolerance. We are doomed to repeat the same tragedies again and again 
if we do not constantly use our voices and our prayers for a much 
better situation in the 21st century of this country.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the Chair for this opportunity to commemorate 
the Armenian genocide. I also want to thank the many Armenian American 
organizations throughout the Nation that make celebration of terror and 
hopeful that it is never done again, not only for Armenians, but for 
every group of people, particularly those in California for their 
tremendous work on behalf of the Armenian Army community which is an 
absolutely wonderful group of people throughout the State.
  I must say to the Turkish Government, you were not there when this 
was done, why cannot you say it was wrong, we did the wrong thing of 
our ancestors and get it on the book and get up to bat, just to use a 
baseball analogy? It just makes us sick when the people do not go back 
in history and say that should not have been done and it will not be 
done again.

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