[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 18 (Monday, May 4, 1998)]
[Page 711]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message on the Observance of Armenian Remembrance Day, 1998

April 24, 1998

    This year, as in the past, we join with Armenian-Americans 
throughout the nation in commemorating one of the saddest chapters in 
the history of this century, the deportations and massacres of a million 
and a half Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the years 1915-1923.
    This painful event from the past also serves as a powerful lesson 
for the future: that man's inhumanity to man must not be tolerated, and 
that evil cannot conquer. The Armenian people have endured, surviving 
the ravages of two World Wars and seven decades of Soviet rule. 
Throughout the world, and especially in this country, Armenians have 
contributed to the material, intellectual and spiritual lives of their 
adopted homes. Today's Armenians are building a free and independent 
nation that stands as a living tribute to all those who died.
    The United States will continue working to preserve a free Armenia 
in a peaceful, stable and prosperous Caucasus region. In that spirit, I 
extend to all Armenians my best wishes on Remembrance Day in the fervent 
hope that those who died will never be forgotten.
                                            William J. Clinton

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