[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10964]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 28, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, last week marked the 94th anniversary of the 
Armenian genocide.
  I have long been a cosponsor of a resolution introduced in multiple 
sessions of Congress which reaffirms the United States Record on the 
Armenian genocide.
  The Armenian genocide, in which 1.5 million perished, is widely 
recognized as the 20th century's first genocide. Raphael Lemkin, the 
Jewish legal scholar who coined the word genocide and tirelessly 
advocated for international law defining it and preventing it, was 
driven largely by what happened to the Armenians.
  Since that time the world has witnessed unfathomable horrors during 
the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust and subsequent genocides in Bosnia, 
Cambodia, Rwanda and still today Darfur. And too often, the world has 
been silent in the face of such brutality.
  Adolph Hitler, in describing his murderous plans and seeking to 
silence those with reservations, famously said, ``Who, after all, 
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''
  There is power in speaking the truth, even about atrocities that 
occurred nearly a century ago, so that other men with evil aims might 
not be empowered by our silence.

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