[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20450]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, today, in the Committee on International 
Relations a remarkable thing happened. Not one but two resolutions 
recognizing the facts of the Armenian genocide passed out of the 
committee with strong bipartisan support, indeed with the support of 
both the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the chairman, and the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking member.
  One of those resolutions I introduced to recognize the first genocide 
of the 20th century, the genocide which claimed the lives of 1.5 
million Armenian men, women and children. The facts of that genocide 
are clear. The facts of genocide are incontrovertible. They are borne 
out in thousands of pages of documents in our own archives. They are 
borne out in the words and the transmitted telegrams of our Ambassador, 
Henry Morgenthau, at the time.
  The only obstacle that the Congress has faced, and it has been a 
formidable one, in recognizing the Armenian genocide is the resistance 
of the Republic of Turkey, the well-documented efforts of its powerful 
lobbyist, and the feeling of some that, by recognizing what all 
historians have recognized, that we will somehow jeopardize our 
relations with an ally.

                              {time}  1800

  I have never taken issue with the fact that Turkey is an ally to the 
United States. It is an ally. It is at a strategic crossroads. It is an 
important member of NATO. At the same time, we cannot equivocate about 
the murder of 1.5 million people; and the differences that we have had 
with Turkey, and they have been considerable, over a whole host of 
issues have not ruptured our relationship.
  During the run-up to the Iraq war, many of my colleagues will 
remember, we sought the permission of Turkey to allow American and 
Coalition ground forces to enter Iraq through Turkey. The Turkish 
Parliament voted on that, and they voted against it. That was of 
enormous significance to this country.
  As a result of that, we could not open that second northern front; as 
a result of that, many melted away to the Iraqi population, many of the 
insurgents that we now fight with so bitterly. That had enormous 
consequences, but it did not end the relationship with the United 
States, and recognition of the historic facts of the genocide will not 
end the relationship with Ankara, either. There are strong mutual 
interests at stake which will transcend the recognition of the historic 
facts.
  In the past, American leaders have recognized the genocide. Ronald 
Reagan spoke eloquently of the facts of the genocide. Winston Churchill 
in his memoirs documents the murder of hundreds of thousands of 
Armenians in a crime at the time that was unequaled. Yet here we are, 
fresh from recognizing, as indeed we should and as indeed we must, the 
genocide going on in Darfur, but unwilling to recognize the murder of 
1.5 million Armenians.
  What does that say about American policy? Can our policy be that we 
will recognize genocide when it is committed by the politically 
impotent, as in the case of Sudan, but not in the case of the 
politically powerful as in the case of the Ottoman Empire and its 
Turkish successors? This certainly cannot be the policy of the United 
States. We must recognize unequivocally that, beginning in 1915, 1.5 
million people were murdered merely because of who they were as a 
people, the very definition of genocide.
  With the passage of these resolutions, with the support of the chair 
and the ranking member, with the overwhelming support on both sides of 
the aisle in committee, I hope that we can get a vote on the House 
floor, something we have not had in more than a decade, so that we can 
once again reestablish the moral authority and clarity that comes with 
recognizing genocide, past or present, foe or friend, alike. I urge the 
Members of this House to join in an effort to call upon the leadership 
to hear the genocide resolution, and I hope the leadership will heed 
that call.

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