[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 5919]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               95TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we teach our children that genocide, 
wherever it occurs, is a crime against humanity that must never be 
tolerated or ignored. That is why it is so important for the United 
States to always recognize genocide for what it is and acknowledge when 
it takes place.
  Between 1915 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire carried out genocide 
against the Armenian people. However, the United States has yet to 
recognize this stain on history by its rightful name despite an 
irrefutable body of evidence documenting the atrocities.
  Diplomats, members of the military, humanitarians, journalists and 
others from the United States and around the world saw with their own 
eyes the deportation, starvation, drowning and murder of an estimated 
1.5 million Armenians. And there are countless testimonies from victims 
who lived to tell of their experiences.
  The American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morganthau, 
wrote:

       When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these 
     deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a 
     whole race; they understood this well, and in their 
     conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to 
     conceal the fact.

  There were great efforts made by Americans to relieve the suffering 
of the victims of what would become the first genocide of the 20th 
century. Powerful leaders of industry and government did speak out. 
Schoolchildren and poor families contributed mightily to try to save 
lives by donating whatever they could. American farmers sent food to 
reduce starvation.
  Yet in the 95 years since the Armenian Genocide began, the word 
``genocide'' has not been used by the United States to describe the 
atrocities carried out against the Armenians.
  The United States has always been a beacon to the world--standing up 
for what is right and just. Now is the time for the United States to 
join countries such as Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, 
France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, 
Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela, and more 
than 40 U.S. States and unequivocally affirm the Armenian Genocide.

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