[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 22]
[House]
[Pages 31283-31284]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address one of the darkest 
events of the 20th century, an event that we must not let be forgotten.
  During the First World War and in the final days of the Ottoman 
Empire, one of the worst atrocities in human history occurred. Even 
among the chaos and violence of World War I, this atrocity stood out, 
horrifying foreign witnesses, and prompting Theodore Roosevelt to call 
it, ``the greatest crime of the war.'' This crime against humanity was 
the Armenian genocide.
  Although large-scale violence against Armenians had previously 
occurred, the events from 1915 to 1918 were truly unprecedented. During 
this period, approximately 1.5 million Armenians were systematically 
killed by the Ottoman Government, while the surviving Armenians were 
left without homes, jobs, possessions, and, most importantly, their 
loved ones.
  Yet, despite overwhelming evidence that the Ottoman Government 
actively sought to destroy the Armenian population, this genocide, the 
first of the 20th century, has been overlooked by the United States. 
This is simply wrong. Because, to end genocide, we must stand up to it 
whenever and wherever it occurs. If we do not, we only embolden those 
who would commit genocide elsewhere.
  In 1939, while explaining his plan to destroy the Polish population, 
Adolph Hitler stated, ``Who, after all, today speaks of the 
annihilation of the Armenians?'' And many of my Polish brothers and 
sisters died.
  Mr. Speaker, today we have the opportunity to speak of the 
annihilation of the Armenians. We can finally characterize the 
systematic murder of 1.5

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million Ottoman Armenians as genocide, and rightfully condemn those 
atrocious killings that occurred 90 years ago. The prevention of future 
genocides may depend on it.

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