[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2329]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  (Ms. SPEIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, my mother, Nancy Kanchelian, was born in 
1915 in Fresno, California, the same year the Ottoman Empire began its 
systematic killing and deportation of millions of her fellow Armenians 
and members of her own family.
  A year ago this week, my mother passed away at the age of 93. And for 
her entire life on Earth, her country, the United States of America, 
refused to officially acknowledge what we know to be true. Our own 
Ambassador to Armenia at the time, Henry Morgenthau, informed the 
Secretary of State: `` . . . excesses against peaceful Armenians is 
increasing, and it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in 
progress.''
  Mr. Speaker, the facts here are not in dispute. The one thing left to 
question is not whether the Armenian genocide took place but, rather, 
if we in this Chamber have the moral and political backbone to stand 
for truth. The House Foreign Affairs Committee will have the 
opportunity this week to pass H. Res. 252 and stand up for truth.

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