[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3088]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               STOP DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY TURKEY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans, the U.S. Ambassador to 
Armenia, recently when meeting with Armenian Americans during visits in 
several U.S. cities referenced the Armenian genocide. In a series of 
public statements, Ambassador Evans who has studied Russian history at 
Yale and Columbia and Ottoman history at the Kennan Institute stated, 
``I will today call it the Armenian Genocide.''
  Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans' statements did not contradict U.S. 
policy, but rather articulated the same message that the Bush 
administration has sent to the public, the only difference in this case 
is that Ambassador Evans simply assigned the word to the definition 
that was already provided by President Bush as well as members of his 
administration.
  Breaking with a pattern on the part of the State Department of using 
alternative and evasive terminology for the Armenian genocide, 
Ambassador Evans pointed out that ``no American official has ever 
denied it.''
  Now, Ambassador Evans was merely recounting the historical record 
which has been attested to by over 120 Holocaust and genocide scholars 
from around the world. In so doing, he was merely giving a name, the 
accurate description of genocide, to this very administration's 
statements on the issue.
  President Bush on April 24 of each of the last four years when 
commemorating the Armenian genocide used the textbook definition of 
genocide with words and phrases such as ``annihilation'' and ``forced 
exile and murder.'' Before him, President Reagan used the word 
``genocide'' in 1981 when describing the annihilation of over 1.5 
million Armenians.

                              {time}  2000

  In the day of the genocide, our U.S. ambassador, then Henry 
Morgenthal, had the courage to speak out against the atrocities which 
he stated were a planned and systematic effort to annihilate an entire 
race.
  In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I just want to add my name and my voice 
to all those who, like Ambassador Evans, know the truth and speak it 
plainly when discussing the Armenian genocide.

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