[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7039]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                 COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

 Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, last week, we paused in remembrance 
of the Armenian genocide, which was carried out by the Ottoman Empire 
from 1915 to 1923. Nearly 2 million Armenians were deported, and 
approximately 1.5 million of those deported were killed.
  It is imperative that we recognize the horrific acts carried out 
against the Armenian people as genocide and I will continue to stand 
with the Armenian American community in calling for the Government of 
Turkey to acknowledge it as such. The occurrence of the Armenian 
genocide is a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming 
collection of historical evidence.
  I was deeply disturbed 2 years ago when the U.S. Ambassador to 
Armenia was fired after he used the term ``genocide'' to describe the 
mass slaughter of Armenians. I called for Secretary Rice to closely 
examine what I believe is an untenable position taken by the U.S. 
Government.
  I will continue to push for the acknowledgement of the Armenian 
genocide, and I offer the Armenian people my condolences.

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