Mr. Speaker, every year on April 24 we commemorate the Armenian genocide. Between 1915 and 1923, in what is called the first genocide of this century, more than one million Armenians perished and 500,000 survivors were exiled from their homes in Ottoman Turkey. We mark this unspeakable tragedy each year on that date so that we can examine what occurred and honor the memory of the victims.
Sadly, Mr. Speaker, the massacre of the Armenians was not the last genocide of the 20th Century. In designing his “final solution to the Jewish problem” Adolf Hitler reflected, “Who today remembers the Armenians?” Decades later, the cries of these victims echoed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. We must remember, Mr. Speaker, but we must also learn from this event and ultimately act on that knowledge to prevent such indescribable horror from ever occurring again. There are those who deny that there was an Armenian genocide.
Mr. Speaker, Yehuda Bauer, historian of Yad Vashem, has said that “to deny a genocide ….. is a denial of truth.” We must speak the truth, and that is what we do here in this House today. As we honor the memory of those who perished, we marvel at the strength of the survivors and the generations which have followed. In the diaspora, the Armenian people have prospered and flourished throughout the world. The creation of the independent state of Armenia in 1991 not only provided the Armenian people with a homeland, but is a beacon of hope for the future.
It is our hope, Mr. Speaker, that Armenia will thrive and prosper and continue to fortify its democracy. It is also our hope, Mr. Speaker, that the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan will redouble their efforts to find a solution to the conflict in Nagomo-Karabagh. I commend our government for bringing the parties together in Florida recently for renewed negotiations, and I hope that this intensified effort will result in an agreement that will ensure lasting peace for all the people of the region.
