[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10632]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      COMMEMORATING THE 94TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. HOWARD L. BERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 23, 2009

  Mr. BERMAN. Madam Speaker, tomorrow, April 24, marks the 94th 
anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. I rise today to 
commemorate this terrible chapter in human history, and to help ensure 
that it will never be forgotten.
  On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government began to arrest Armenian 
community and political leaders. Many were executed without ever being 
charged with crimes. Then the government deported the overwhelming 
majority of Armenians from Ottoman Armenia, ordering that they resettle 
in what is now Syria. Most deportees never reached that destination.
  From 1915 to 1918, more than a million Armenians died of starvation 
or disease on long marches, or were massacred outright by Turkish 
forces. From 1918 to 1923, Armenians continued to suffer at the hands 
of the Turkish military, which eventually removed nearly all remaining 
Armenians from Turkey.
  We mark this anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide 
because this tragedy for the Armenian people was a tragedy for all 
humanity. It is our duty to remember, to speak out and to teach future 
generations about the horrors of genocide and the oppression and 
terrible suffering endured by the Armenian people.
  We hope the day will soon come when it is not just the survivors who 
honor the dead but also when those whose ancestors perpetrated the 
horrors acknowledge their terrible responsibility and commemorate as 
well the memory of genocide's victims.
  Sadly, we cannot say humanity has progressed to the point where 
genocide has become unthinkable. We have only to recall the killing 
fields of Cambodia, mass killings in Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia 
and Kosovo, and the unspeakable horrors in Darfur, Sudan to see that 
the threat of genocide persists. We must renew our commitment never to 
remain indifferent in the face of such assaults on innocent human 
beings.
  We also remember this day because it is a time for us to celebrate 
the contributions of the Armenian community in America--including 
hundreds of thousands in California--to the richness of our character 
and culture. The strength they and their immigrant ancestors have 
displayed in overcoming tragedy to flourish in this country is an 
example for all of us. Their success is moving testimony to the truth 
that tyranny and evil cannot extinguish the vitality of the human 
spirit.
  The United States has an ongoing opportunity to contribute to a true 
memorial to the past by strengthening Armenia's emerging democracy. We 
must do all we can through aid and trade to support Armenia's efforts 
to construct an open political and economic system.
  Adolf Hitler, the architect of the Nazi Holocaust, once remarked 
``Who remembers the Armenians?'' The answer is, we do. And we will 
continue to remember the victims of the 1915-23 genocide because, in 
the words of the philosopher George Santayana, ``Those who cannot 
remember the past are condemned to repeat it.''

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