[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10131]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 96th 
anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
  On March 24, 1915, 300 Armenian leaders were rounded up and deported 
and killed under the orders from the young Turk Government. And so 
began the genocide that lasted for 7 years, resulting in an estimated 
over 1.5 million Armenian deaths. To this day, unfortunately, the 
Turkish Government denies that this occurred.
  Ladies and gentlemen, Members of the House, I just returned from 
Darfur with a group of our colleagues 2 weeks ago. Over 450,000 people 
have been killed and millions displaced in Darfur; yet government 
officials claim there in Darfur and Sudan that there is no genocide, 
that the situation is overblown.
  Yesterday Rwanda, today Darfur. And we can remember the Holocaust. 
Clearly, silence is genocide's best ally. It is time that the Congress 
end this silence and pass the Armenian genocide resolution. The message 
will be clear: the United States of America will never forget and never 
stand for those who support genocide.

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