Recognizing the Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, today is a great day because, after decades of struggle, this House will recognize the Armenian genocide, just in time to be viewed by the last survivors of the first genocide of the 20th century.

Two weeks ago, I came to this floor and I said now is the time, finally, to recognize the Armenian genocide because it was no longer the time to kowtow to Turkey. Since then, many of us have approached the Speaker and urged her to put this bill on the floor.

But this great day belongs to Nancy Pelosi, our Speaker, who made the decision to bring it to the floor, where we will pass this resolution, H. Res. 296, which I and so many others introduced to this House in April of this year. And, of course, I have cosponsored and been an original cosponsor of every Armenian genocide resolution since 1997.

We always should have recognized the Armenian genocide, but we were told again and again that we wouldn't do it because we have this great alliance with Turkey.

Earlier this month, Turkish forces shelled to the left and then to the right of an American base. It seemed clear to many that they were ready to kill Americans. America withdrew. And this was not some well- planned, careful, deliberate withdrawal. We left because of the Turkish shelling and the Turkish threats.

Great alliance? It has been a great alliance for Turkey. We defended them from communism. We defended them from the Soviet Union. We provided them $23 billion in aid. And we are the reason why there is not an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq.

They shelled to the left; they shelled to the right of an American military outpost.

From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire massacred 1.5 million Armenians, the first genocide of the 20th century. There is no doubt that this occurred. Even the administration testified before our committee last week.

The massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, et cetera, was one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century, and this is not in dispute. There is no dispute that that mass death constituted a genocide because Raphael Lemkin, who invented the word ``genocide,'' said the Armenian genocide was an example--the first example, perhaps--of what he was talking about.

It is time that we recognize the genocide because genocide denial is the last act of the genocide. First, you obliterate a people; then, you seek to obliterate their memory; and, finally, you seek to obliterate the memory of the obliteration.

But genocide denial is also the first step in the next genocide. When Hitler's cadres wondered whether they could get away with the Holocaust, he assured them: Who today speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?

And it is time to recognize this genocide to remove a stain on America's honor because, up until now, we have hidden and refused to acknowledge the truth. We have been silent, all in an effort to appease Turkey.

Turkey committed a genocide in World War I and denies it to this day. Germany committed a genocide during World War II and has acknowledged it from the 1940s.

Germany has moved on to be a prosperous and strong democracy. Turkey continues to deny the genocide, then passes law prohibiting the discussion of the genocide; and that leads to censorship, authoritarianism, undercuts the rule of law, leads to corruption and a country that has great problems.

Where would Germany be if it denied the Holocaust to this day? Where would we be if we denied the genocide of so many Native American Tribes?

Turkey will be a great ally of the United States only when it recognizes the first genocide of the 20th century, only when it allows free discussion of its own history by its own people.

So, today is the right day to recognize the first genocide of the 20th century. We should have done it earlier. We should do it every year on the anniversary in April. But it starts here and now, and, finally, America can stand up along with so many other countries that have recognized that genocide.

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