Ninety-Second Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

* Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to commemorate the anniversary of the first genocide of the 20th century. More than 90 years ago, the Ottoman Empire organized a campaign to exterminate 1.5 million Armenians. The world watched as this horror unfolded before them, and did nothing.

* As the first genocide of the 21st century--this time in Darfur--began to take shape, the world again hesitated, this time to debate for months the definition of genocide, as thousands died and thousands more were displaced. Today, 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 2.5 million driven from their homes. And so, I rise Mr. Speaker not only to acknowledge and remember the horrific events that befell the Armenian people at the dawn of the last century, but also to highlight the horrific events occurring one hundred years later in Darfur at the dawn of this century.

* For the past few years, as the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide approached, I hoped that year would be the year a solution to the crisis would come. But, this year, instead of speaking of how the lessons of the Armenian Genocide helped unite the world around a solution for Darfur, I can only report of ongoing suffering and continued killings.

* As the world pauses today to remember those who suffered and died during the Armenian Genocide, we need to ask ourselves if we have really absorbed the lessons of that tragedy--and, if we are really doing all that can be done to bring this century's genocide to an end.

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