Ninety-Second Commemoration Of The Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

NINETY-SECOND COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE -- (House of Representatives - April 23, 2007)

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues on the Republican side for agreeing to let me reclaim the time. I will try to limit my time to less than 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the Armenian genocide. As the first genocide of the 20th century, it is morally imperative that we remember this atrocity and collectively demand reaffirmation of this crime against humanity.

On April 24, 1915, 92 years ago tomorrow, that day marked the beginning of the systematic and deliberate campaign of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Over the following 8 years, 1 1/2 million Armenians were tortured and murdered, and more than one-half million were forced from their homeland into exile. These facts are indisputable, but to this day the U.S. Congress has never properly recognized the Armenian genocide.

The historical record, Mr. Speaker, on the Armenian genocide is unambiguous and well-documented with overwhelming evidence. The U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, Henry Morgenthau, protested the slaughter of the Armenians to the Ottoman leaders. In a cable to the U.S. State Department on July 16, 1915, Ambassador Morgenthau stated that, ``A campaign of race extermination is in progress.''

Mr. Speaker, if America is going to live up to the standards we set for ourselves, and continue to lead the world in affirming human rights everywhere, we need to finally stand up and recognize the tragic events that began in 1915 for what they were: the systematic elimination of a people.

Despite pleas by Members of Congress and the Armenian-American community and recognition by much of the international community, President Bush continues to avoid any clear references to the Armenian genocide, while consistently opposing legislation marking this crime against humanity. Instead, he has chosen to succumb to shameless threats by the Government of Turkey. I strongly believe that Turkey's policy of denying the Armenian genocide gives warrant to those who perpetrate genocide everywhere, because denial is the last stage of genocide. If the cycle is to end, there must be accountability. And just as we would not permit denying the Holocaust, we cannot accept Turkey's falsification of the facts of 1915.

Mr. Speaker, I must say that in the last few months the Turkish Government has made every effort to try to prevent the Armenian genocide resolution from coming to the floor of the House of Representatives. But I just want to show why denial is such a bad thing in a sense. Last week, I came to the floor and I pointed out that when the U.N. wanted to do a project or an exhibit at the United Nations headquarters talking about the genocide in Rwanda, because the Turkish Government protested the inclusion of the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide never took place. There again, if you deny one genocide, you end up denying or impacting the other.

And the fact of the matter is that when some of my colleagues say to me, ``Well, why do you need to bring up something that occurred 92 years ago,'' I say, ``Because by denying this, the Turkish Government continues to perpetrate genocide or oppression of its minorities.

Just a few weeks ago, there was something in the New York Times about how the Turkish Government continues to persecute the Kurdish minority. Many Kurds have been killed, driven from their homelands in the same way Armenians were. The Kurds happen to be a Muslim people, not a Christian people. That doesn't matter. The Turkish Government consistently oppresses minorities. They refuse also to open their borders with Armenia. They have actually had a blockade of Armenia in placed for several years, which contributes to the economic instability of Armenia.

So this is something that must be done. It must be accomplished, that we recognize this genocide if it continues in various ways in Turkey today.

The second thing I would point out is that the Turkish Government has been basically hiring lobbyists for millions of dollars to go around and tell Members of Congress that if they pass the genocide resolution, there will be dire consequences: Turkey will not allow supplies to go to U.S. troops in Iraq.

They have actually taken to having Members of Congress called and told that their own soldiers in Iraq might be threatened if they pass the genocide resolution.

Well, again, this is the type of bullying that we, as a free government, should not allow because bullying is essentially the same thing that takes place when genocide takes place. Why should we give in to the threats of a country that tries to bully our country over such an important issue as the genocide?

Now, let me just mention, Mr. Speaker, to wrap up, that tomorrow evening at 6:30 the Armenian Caucus, which I cochair, will host an Armenian genocide commemoration event with the Armenian embassy, and I hope that many of the Members will attend this.

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