[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6243-6244]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        ARMENIAN REMEMBRANCE DAY

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, at this time every year, we observe 
Armenian Remembrance Day, when we commemorate the horrific and tragic 
events that constitute the Armenian Genocide. We also honor those who 
suffered persecution and lost their lives, and recognize those who 
survived this dark period in human history.
  On April 24, 1915, Turkish Ottoman authorities began rounding up and 
murdering more than 5,000 Armenians, including civic leaders, 
intellectuals, writers, priests, scientists, and doctors. This 
systematic campaign of deportation, expropriation, starvation, and 
other atrocities continued until 1923, resulting in the deaths of 
nearly 1.5 million Armenians. As U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, 
Henry Morganthau, said at the time, ``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. . . I am confident that the whole history of the human race 
contains no such horrible episode as this.''

[[Page 6244]]

  The Armenian Day of Remembrance serves to remind us all of how 
important it is that we look unflinchingly at the atrocities that 
mankind is capable of, sustained by the ability of our human spirit to 
overcome such tragedy. The horrific events we remember today 
constituted the first genocide of the 20th century. But it was soon 
followed by the Holocaust, where Hitler said he could pursue it and 
inflict it on humanity since ``Who, after all, speaks today of the 
annihilation of the Armenians?'' Recent history in Rwanda, Congo, 
Darfur and elsewhere reminds us that genocides and mass atrocities 
remain with us to this day. And as President Obama has said, ``bearing 
witness is not the end of our obligation--it's just the beginning.'' He 
has called for our committing ourselves ``to resisting injustice and 
intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take.''
  Some have sought to deny that the atrocities committed against the 
Armenian people occurred. But as the Genocide Prevention Task Force, 
chaired by former Secretary of State Albright and former Secretary of 
Defense William Cohen, stated, it is ``fundamental to address the 
legacy of past abuses.'' This is necessary, the task force emphasizes, 
for the sake of justice, to remove the cause of retribution, and to end 
the discounting of the costs of violence. Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel 
has said that the denial of genocide constitutes a ``double killing,'' 
for it seeks to rewrite history by absolving the perpetrators of 
violence while ignoring the suffering of the victims.
  We need to be clear that marking this Armenian Day of Remembrance is 
not an indictment of the Republic of Turkey. It occurred before the 
Republic of Turkey came into existence. With the signing of accords 
last October, Turkey and Armenia have taken a major step forward in the 
process of normalizing relations, opening their common border which has 
been closed for more than a decade and a half, and removing barriers to 
trade. Ratification of those accords will be important for continuing 
this process of reconciliation and hopefully will be completed 
promptly. All friends of Armenia and Turkey should hope that these two 
nations and peoples can jointly face their shared history and move 
forward together as fellow members of the community of nations.
  In speaking to a joint session of Congress last November, German 
Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke eloquently about the importance of 
tearing down walls, not only between neighbors but also the ``wall in 
people's minds that make it difficult time and again to understand one 
another in this world of ours. This is why the ability to show 
tolerance is so important.'' She added, ``Tolerance means showing 
respect for other people's history, traditions, religion and cultural 
identity.''
  So I say to my colleagues that one way we can honor the memory of the 
1.5 million Armenian victims of the tragic events of 1915-1923 is by 
recognizing that we have an obligation to do all we can to stop mass 
atrocities from occurring, to aid the survivors of such tragedies, and 
to promote justice, tolerance, and understanding.

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