[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6798-6799]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   REMARKS ON THE OBSERVANCE OF THE 93RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN 
                                GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 23, 2008

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, today, as we observe the 93rd Anniversary 
of the Armenian Genocide, I stand with the millions around the world 
who have called for greater recognition of this atrocious event in 
world history.
  Madam Speaker, my mother, now 92 years old and still working outside 
the home, is a first generation Armenian-American who lost much of her 
family in the atrocities of 1915. She and many of my Armenian brothers 
and sisters have long waited for validation from our country and the 
international community of simply acknowledging the events that took 
place and were well documented at the time. Growing up, I heard stories 
about our relatives who were lost. As I got older, I read the telegram 
sent by our Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the Secretary of State on 
July 16, 1915:
  ``Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is 
increasing and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that 
a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of 
reprisal against rebellion.''

[[Page 6799]]

  We are told by some to forget the Armenian Genocide, to get over it. 
But to forget any incident like this is tantamount to allowing it to 
happen again.
  The facts before us are not in dispute. The reason we still debate 
this is not to determine if a genocide took place but rather, to 
determine if we have the political backbone to stand up for the truth.
  Madam Speaker, the Members of this House disagree on many things in 
the course of our work. But it is the things we agree on that bind us 
together. Freedom. Democracy. Opportunity. And the repudiation of any 
act of genocide, ethnic cleansing or subjugation.
  We condemn the Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet gulags, the Khmer 
Rouge's killing fields and the current and lasting tragedy in Darfur. 
We wouldn't think of excusing or ignoring any of these. To do so would 
be unconscionable. Why then, do we allow our nation's official reaction 
to the Armenian genocide to be little more than a shrug?

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