[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5405-5406]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


              OBSERVING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, this is a week to bear witness. Today, 
April 24, we mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day--the day on which 
we remind one another of the organized campaign of deportation, 
expropriation, starvation--and atrocity perpetrated by the Ottoman 
Empire against its Armenian population, beginning with the detention 
and eventual execution of hundreds of Armenian community members on 
April 24, 1915, just as, a few days ago, we marked Holocaust 
Remembrance Day, bearing witness to the attempt by Nazi Germany to 
destroy Europe's Jewish population.
  Why do we mark these days? Because in recognizing and condemning the 
horror of these acts, we affirm our own humanity, we ensure that the 
victims of these atrocities will not be forgotten, and we warn those 
who believe they can perpetrate similar crimes with impunity that they 
will not escape the world's notice. We remind ourselves that we must 
never again allow such mass assaults against human decency without 
acting to stop them. And we mark these atrocities because only by 
acknowledging the violence and inhumanity can we begin the process of 
reconciling populations who even today are haunted by the damage done 
decades ago.
  The Ottoman campaign against the Armenians resulted in the deaths of 
over 1.5 million people. Large numbers of Armenians fled their homeland 
to seek safety elsewhere, including in Michigan and other communities 
in the United States. Some have sought to deny that these events 
constituted genocide, but the historical record is clear and 
undeniable. I ask any who deny the historical reality of the Armenian 
genocide to read ``Giants of the Earth,'' the moving memoir of native 
Detroiter Mitch Kehetian and his search for the fate of beloved family 
members during the tragedy.
  It is important for us to remember that these atrocities were not 
committed by the Republic of Turkey. I hope that the governments of 
Turkey and Armenia, encouraged by the good will of the community of 
nations, can heal the divisions that remain from long-ago events that 
nonetheless remain painful. We should also remember that Turkey played 
a valuable role in supporting the international community's efforts to 
free Libya from dictatorship and value the role Turkey is playing today 
in helping to resolve the tragedy unfolding in neighboring Syria.
  It is doubly tragic that the Armenian genocide is now seen as the 
beginning of a decades-long series of mass atrocities. The inability or 
unwillingness of the international community to come to the aid of the 
Armenians emboldened others--including Adolph Hitler, who told his 
commanders on the eve of the invasion of Poland, ``Who, after all, 
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?'' And so, he 
launched the Holocaust, ending the lives of six million Jews simply 
because they were Jewish.
  All people would like to believe that they live in a more enlightened 
age, one in which we have overcome the inhumanity of the past. And yet 
our own time is not immune from mass atrocity. Recent events in Libya 
and Syria, to name just two, remind us that violence, oppression, and 
disregard for human rights remain with us.
  Just as mass atrocity is still with us, so are human courage and the 
determination to stand against atrocity. When the international 
community came together to support the people of Libya against the 
oppressive Libyan regime, we helped accomplish something important and 
powerful for Libyans, but beyond that, we sent a message to other 
dictators that they might not escape a response from the international 
community.
  I say ``might not'' because we still have a long way to go as a world 
community in confronting murderous dictators. The current regime in 
Syria is engaged in a campaign of attack and intimidation against its 
own people. The examples of history make clear the international 
community's obligation to speak out and to take action. It is 
unfortunate that nations in a position to do so, such as China and 
Russia, have blocked the United Nations from

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taking stronger steps. The United States and its allies must now seek 
to implement additional steps to protect innocent civilians and hold 
the Assad regime in Syria accountable, including the possibility of 
establishing safe havens along the border with Turkey.
  While we mark these historic crimes, it is also important to 
recognize signs of progress. It is significant that the United States 
is now taking what promises to be not just a stronger approach to mass 
atrocities, but a more effective one. A presidential directive signed 
by President Obama last August states clearly: ``Preventing mass 
atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core 
moral responsibility of the United States of America.'' And yesterday, 
the President announced that he will implement the recommendations 
resulting from a comprehensive review of U.S. policy with regard to 
mass atrocity.
  The creation of an Atrocity Prevention Board will ensure that 
prevention of these human tragedies is a focus of U.S. policy, a 
national security interest we will pursue, bringing all appropriate 
elements of American policy and power to bear. Importantly, U.S. policy 
recognizes that military action is not our only means to prevent mass 
atrocity, and that every aspect of our international involvement--
intelligence, diplomacy, economic and development policy, as well as, 
when called for, military power--can be called upon.
  We cannot prevent the madness that, even in our era, too often leads 
to unspeakable crimes. But we can remember. We can speak out. And we 
can act, with the range of instruments at our disposal, to prevent 
those in the forefront of such madness from acting on their inhuman 
schemes. May Americans never forget the genocide visited upon the 
Armenians we remember today. And may our collective memories always 
remind us of our responsibility to prevent atrocity in our own time.

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