[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 6014]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      COMMEMORATING THE 91ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. JOHN J.H. ``JOE'' SCHWARZ

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 25, 2006

  Mr. SCHWARZ of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 
91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, to remember the victims, to 
recognize the survivors, and to keep the memory of this atrocity fresh 
and alive.
  The Armenian genocide began April 24, 1915 with the Ottoman Empire's 
campaign to eradicate the Armenian presence within its borders. The 
alarmed American ambassador at the time protested Ottoman policy and 
wrote to Washington describing what was happening on the ground as a 
``campaign of race extermination.'' By the time the genocide ended 
eight years later it claimed one and a half million souls and forced 
another half a million Armenians to flee their homes and leave their 
country in order to survive, many coming to the United States where the 
community would go on to thrive.
  This despicable mass murder, torture, and killing of innocents was 
indeed a genocide; that fact can neither be denied nor ignored. It is 
outrageous that 91 years later the governments of the United States and 
Turkey still refuse to acknowledge this slaughter for what it was. This 
is shameful in light of the magnitude of suffering the Armenian 
community has endured since their victimization and the subsequent 
historical denial of their persecution.
  It is time to act by appropriately condemning this horrific event. I 
join my colleagues from the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues in 
calling upon this administration and the government of Turkey to 
formally recognize the Armenian genocide.

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