[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5458-5459]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      COMMEMORATING THE 97TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 24, 2012

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and commemorate a 
solemn occasion of deep personal significance. Today marks 97 years 
since the infamous episode in which the Ottoman Empire began rounding 
up and murdering Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in 
Constantinople. By 1923, some 1.5 million Armenian women, children and 
men were dead from a systematic campaign we now know as the Armenian 
Genocide, or Great Crime. Their lives ended in the most brutal ways 
imaginable, subjected to death marches, burnings, rape and forced 
starvation. Some 500,000 Armenians who did survive--my own grandparents 
among them--were forced into exile.
  Like others whose families experienced this tragedy first-hand, I did 
not first learn of the Armenian Genocide in history books. I learned 
about it from my own Grandmother as she recounted the murders of 
priests and her flight from the only home she knew.
  We must be clear: There is no doubt to the fact that the Armenian 
Genocide took place. There is no credible historian who can dispute it, 
and there is no evidence that detracts from its horror and magnitude. 
What's missing is a moral clarity as penetrating as the facts 
themselves, and a willingness in this House and in our government to 
acknowledge the Genocide.
  The consequences of surrendering the moral high ground on Genocide 
denial are manifest and tragic. Since 1915, we have witnessed the same 
tragedy again and again. In 1939, Adolf Hitler is said to have asked, 
in justifying his awful crimes, ``Who, after all, speaks today of the 
annihilation of the Armenians?'' In the Holodomor in Ukraine, the 
killing fields of Cambodia, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, the red 
clay hills of Rwanda, and now, today in Darfur--genocidal crimes 
continue. We must acknowledge the Armenian genocide for our collective 
future, for those who suffer around the world today, and to honor the 
memories of those who died.
  Each time this question arises, there are those who demand we once 
again sweep history under the rug for political convenience, calling 
what began 97 years ago anything but Genocide. My response is simple. 
The systematic extermination of an ethnic group is Genocide, and we 
insult ourselves and degrade our values when we claim otherwise.
  I hope we use this solemn occasion to redouble our support for a more 
honest appraisal of the facts. So much of who I am is informed by my 
Armenian heritage, including the moral grounding to demand the truth. 
As we pray today for those who died, let us also

[[Page 5459]]

work toward an open and just acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide, 
the truth, and a strengthened commitment to prevent such atrocities 
from ever happening again.

                          ____________________