[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4818-4819]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Schiff) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, an open letter to President Barack Obama.

       Dear Mr. President:
       In 2009, less than a year after assuming the Presidency, 
     you accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. You began your acceptance 
     of this honor by acknowledging that it was bestowed at the 
     ``beginning, and not the end of, my labors on the world 
     stage.''
       You spoke on that day with eloquence and conviction about 
     fundamental human rights, rights that are endowed not by 
     accidents of birth like nationality or ethnicity or gender, 
     but by our common humanity. And the principles that you 
     articulated have indeed guided and defined your Presidency.
       In your foreign policy, you have emphasized the rights of 
     ethnic and religious minorities worldwide and put these 
     causes closer to the center of our foreign policy. You have 
     extended aid to refugees fleeing horrific violence. You 
     established the Atrocities Prevention Board to coordinate and 
     monitor our efforts to prevent mass atrocities and genocide.
       In a few days, you will have a chance to add to your 
     legacy. On April 24, the world will mark 101 years since the 
     systemic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the 
     Ottoman Empire, from 1915 to 1923. The facts of the slaughter 
     are beyond dispute, and I know that you are well-acquainted 
     with these horrors visited upon the Armenian people, having 
     spoken eloquently about them as a Senator.
       I have sat with survivors of the genocide, men and women, 
     their numbers dwindling year after year, and heard them 
     recall the destruction of their lives and their families and 
     all they had known. As children, they were forced from their 
     homes and saw their family beaten, raped, and murdered. They 
     fled across continents and oceans to build lives in our 
     Nation.
       Mr. President, for them and for their descendants, the word 
     ``genocide'' is sacred because it means that the world has 
     not and

[[Page 4819]]

     will not forget. To deny genocide, on the other hand, is 
     profane. It is, in the words of Elie Wiesel, a ``double 
     killing.''
       This April 24 will be your final opportunity to use the 
     Presidency to speak plainly about the genocide. In past years 
     as President, you have described the campaign of murder and 
     displacement against the Armenian people as a ``mass 
     atrocity,'' which it surely was.
       But, of course, it was also much more; and you have avoided 
     using the word ``genocide,'' even though it has been 
     universally applied by scholars and historians of the period. 
     In fact, as you know better than most, the Ottoman Empire's 
     campaign to annihilate the Armenian people was a prime 
     example of what Raphael Lemkin was trying to describe when he 
     coined the very term, ``genocide.''
       I know that, as you consider your words this year, you will 
     hear the same voices as in the past who will tell you to hold 
     your tongue and speak in euphemisms. They will say that the 
     time is not right, or that Turkey is too strategically 
     important, or that we should not risk their ire over 
     something that happened a century ago. Mr. President, 
     regardless of what you say on April 24, there can be little 
     doubt that Turkey will do exactly as it has always done in 
     its relations with the United States, and that is whatever 
     Turkey believes to be in its self-interest.
       Many of our European allies and world leaders, including 
     Pope Francis, have recognized the genocide, yet they have 
     continued to work closely with Turkey because that has been 
     in Turkey's interest. The same will be true after U.S. 
     recognition of the genocide.
       I dearly hope, as do millions of Armenians descended from 
     genocide survivors around the world, that you take this final 
     opportunity to call the Armenian genocide what it was--
     genocide; to say that the Ottoman Empire committed this 
     grotesque crime against the Armenians, but their campaign of 
     extermination failed; and that, above all, we will never 
     forget and we will never again be intimidated into silence. 
     Let this be part of your legacy, and you will see future 
     administrations follow your example.
       When you spoke in Oslo more than 7 years ago, you closed 
     your remarks by returning to the counsel of Dr. Martin Luther 
     King and said: ``I refuse to accept the idea that the 
     `isness' of man's present condition makes him morally 
     incapable of reaching up for the eternal `oughtness' that 
     forever confronts him.''
       Mr. President, confronting painful, difficult but vital 
     questions ``is'' who you are. Help us be the America we 
     ``ought'' to be, that beacon of freedom and dignity that 
     shines its light on the darkness of human history and exposes 
     the vile crime of genocide.
       Sincerely, Adam Schiff.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks 
to the Chair and not to a perceived viewing audience.

                          ____________________