[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26909]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  (Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the House Committee 
on Foreign Affairs will consider H. Res. 106, affirming the United 
States' record on the Armenian genocide. I will ask my colleagues on 
the committee to carefully consider this resolution and the vast body 
of evidence that supports its conclusion.
  The allied powers of the First World War early on recognized that the 
Turkish Government at that time was committing crimes against humanity 
by perpetrating the organized slaughter of Armenians. The U.S. Congress 
of that time affirmed these crimes in hearings and resolutions. Though 
the chief organizers of this crime were convicted of the massacres by 
the Turkish military courts, they never were made to pay any penalty.
  We fully recognize now the friendship of our allies in Turkey, but it 
cannot change the past. I hope that there can be some reconciliation 
between Turkey and Armenia and that a proper acknowledgment of the 
crimes of the past can allow them to move forward into the future of 
peace and mutual understanding.

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