Affirming the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, it has been more than 100 years since the atrocities committed against innocent Armenians and other ethnic and religious minorities at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire genocidal campaign from 1915 to 1923 killed 1.5 million Armenians, men and women and children, as well as Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs throughout a series of executions and death marches.

Finally, today, we are entering into the United States Record the Armenian genocide and the historical fact.

Today, we end a century of international silence. There will not be another period of indifference or international ignorance to the lives lost to systematic murder.

Genocides, wherever and whenever they occur, cannot be ignored, whether they took place in the 20th century by the Ottoman Turks or mid-20th century by the Third Reich and in Darfur.

Genocide must be acknowledged for what it is: a scourge on the human race.

Genocide is genocide, Mr. Speaker, even if our so-called strategic allies perpetrated it.

President Ronald Reagan explicitly referred to the Ottoman Empire's actions as the genocide of the Armenians in a 1981 Holocaust Remembrance Day speech.

Over 30 nations have formally recognized the genocide, including France, Germany, and even Russia. Today, Mr. Speaker, the United States is going to acknowledge it as well.

I found Pope Francis' words and explicit use of the term ``genocide'' to be another wake-up call for the world. We must acknowledge the atrocities of the past so that we might, hopefully, prevent them in the future.

Our darkest moments as a human race have come during times when those who knew better stood silently, making excuses for passivity and allowing injustice and persecution to reign.

Turkey's current actions in northern Syria against our Kurdish allies is extremely concerning, and we cannot stand by and let egregious human rights violations happen. Turkey's offensive into Syria is unacceptable behavior from a U.S. ally and so- called secular democracy, as well as a NATO member. It is simply deplorable, Mr. Speaker.

We also need to make sure that other genocidal campaigns being waged in the Middle East are also properly recognized. ISIS is a perpetrator of genocide. Christians and other minorities are being killed solely because of their religion, and no modern society should sit silently in the face of such barbaric brutality.

Again, I am thankful that we are finally recognizing these atrocities and these acts against the Armenian people. Like the earliest Christians, the Armenians proved themselves not only survivors of persecution, but also masters of their destinies.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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