[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8833]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I take this opportunity today to solemnly 
commemorate the 92nd Anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
  The Armenian genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century. 
From 1915 until 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were brutally killed by the 
Ottoman Turks in a systematic effort to eradicate the Armenian people. 
There were unbearable acts of torture; men were separated from their 
families and murdered; women and children were put on a forced march 
across the Syrian desert without food or water.
  Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 
to 1916, recalled:

       When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these 
     deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a 
     whole race; they understood this well, and, in their 
     conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to 
     conceal the fact . . . I am confident that the whole history 
     of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. 
     The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost 
     insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian 
     race in 1915.

  However, we were to witness other such horrible genocides later, 
including the Holocaust and the genocide in Darfur, which is happening 
today.
  As with later genocides, some have tried to deny that the Armenian 
genocide happened. Shamefully, the Government of Turkey still refuses 
to admit that genocide occurred.
  In order for democracy and human rights to flourish, we must not 
support efforts to rewrite and deny history. In the United States, we 
strive to make human rights a fundamental component of our democracy. 
It is long overdue for our nation to demand that the truth be told. We 
must recognize the Armenian genocide in the name of democracy, fairness 
and human rights.
  At the beginning of the 21st century, as genocide is waged in Darfur, 
it is even more critical to recognize the first genocide of the 20th 
Century. We must send a message that genocide and genocide denial will 
never be tolerated.
  To that end, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of Senator 
Richard Durbin's S. Res. 106, calling on the President to accurately 
characterize the Armenian Genocide in his annual message around April 
24 and to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects 
appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to 
human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United 
States record relating to the Armenian genocide.
  It is important that we recognize the Armenian genocide while its 
survivors are still with us to tell their stories. We must recognize 
the genocide for the survivors. We must recognize the genocide because 
it is the right thing to do. We must recognize the Armenian genocide to 
help shed light on the darkness and move toward a more humane world.

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