Worcester, Massachusetts Remembers the Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS REMEMBERS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Mr. MCGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 92nd anniversary and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. Yesterday, I had the privilege to join the Armenian-American community of Worcester, Massachusetts, including survivors of the Genocide and their families, and many dignitaries of Central Massachusetts and the Commonwealth at an event remembering the Armenian Genocide and the role it plays in understanding contemporary events.

I am submitting today for the RECORD a copy of the remarks I made at this special commemoration and an article that appeared in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

Worcester Armenian Genocide Observance

I want to thank Father Terzian and the Armenian Church of Our Savior for inviting me to participate in this remembrance--and I'm very pleased to be here with Lt. Governor Tim Murray and the Mayor of Worcester, Konstantina Lukes. But I am especially honored to be here with the Worcester Armenian-American community, survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and their families.

There are several reasons why I look forward to this event each year.

First and foremost, it gives me an opportunity to reconnect with all of you, the Worcester Armenian-American community, and to thank you for all your fine work and contributions to our city.

Second, it is a moment when we recommit ourselves to pressing the United States government to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

And finally, it provides me each year with a moment to reflect on our world; and on how I as an individual, we as a community, and we as a Nation are responding to genocide and crimes against humanity that, sadly and unbelievably, are carried out nearly every day in some part of the world.

I believe that this year there is a very good chance that the U.S. House of Representatives might actually pass H. Res. 106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

I can tell that this is a real possibility because for the first time in years, I'm receiving materials arguing against the resolution and against the official recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

I believe adopting the Armenian Genocide Resolution is the right thing to do:

As a matter of morality--and in the name of humanity--the United States should recognize and condemn all genocides.

In the name of historic truth--and in honor of the historic role so many American diplomatic personnel and humanitarian and relief workers played in saving lives and condemning the genocide as it was taking place--the U.S. especially should recognize the Armenian Genocide.

And in the hope of preventing future genocides--we have to recognize and honor the truth of the past. Denial of the Armenian Genocide--just like denial of the Holocaust--makes future genocides more likely, not less.

No Nation, not Turkey or any other country, should be allowed to block the official recognition or commemoration or the teaching of historic truth about the Armenian Genocide.

It's ironic that the current Turkish government doesn't seem to realize that the more it denies the Armenian Genocide, the more people begin to think that there really is a connection between the Turks who carried out the Armenian Genocide at the beginning of the 20th century and today's 21st century government.

By denying the truth, Turkey undermines its own standing throughout the world, blocks its own acceptance into the European family, and increases regional tensions, especially with neighboring Armenia. Turkey's recognition of the Genocide, its reconciliation with the past, would widely be viewed as the act of a mature democracy, which the world would rush to embrace and reward.

This is why America must also officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in eastern Chad. And the reality of genocide was right before my eyes.

There are over 250,000 refugees from Darfur, Sudan living in camps inside Chad. Thanks to the many international and humanitarian workers who have chosen to work and help these survivors of the violence taking place every day in Darfur, the camps are well-organized and efficient.

But I'd like to describe for you some of what I saw--and what the Darfur refugees told me about what they had witnessed.

I met with individuals and families who had been forced to flee their villages in Darfur. Each had a story about loved ones murdered, homes destroyed, people and family left behind. Many didn't know if some of their family or children were even alive.

I talked with one woman who was harvesting onions at a small agricultural site in Camp Gaga, a Darfur refugee camp a couple of hours from the town of Abeche in eastern Chad. She held a tiny baby in her arms as she worked on her onion patch. She told me the Janjaweed attacked her village so quickly and so ferociously that she couldn't even bury her husband who was struck down in the attack; she barely had time to cover him with a sheet before she escaped with her baby and children. She feels guilty and thinks about this all the time. And she now hopes to stay alive and return, someday, to her village.

I met with several other men and women, refugees from Darfur, at the Goz Amer Camp near the town of Koukou, Chad. This is a much larger and older camp. Many of the people have been here for 3 years or so. These people were being interviewed for the eyewitness testimony regarding crimes against humanity that some day may be reviewed by the International Criminal Court.

I went to eastern Chad to meet and talk with refugees from Darfur because the Government of Sudan wouldn't give me a visa to enter their country.

But sometimes things happen for a reason, I believe. Because not only did I learn about the reality of Darfur--I personally discovered Chad.

The war in Darfur is bleeding into Chad, as well as other neighboring countries.

While I was in Chad, two ``towns''--Tiero and Marena, which actually consist of about 31 small villages--were attacked by ``Janjaweed'' militias operating inside Chad. According to the Chadian survivors who I talked to--they described their attackers as a combination of Sudanese Janjaweed and Chadian Janjaweed allies. They were armed. They were on horseback. The attacks started at about five in the morning, and came in about 3 distinct waves of attack. They shot randomly, at everything and everyone. Women, children, men, livestock, fell to the earth dead or wounded. Homes were burned to the ground. Abandoned crockery, left charred and broken.

These Chadians--now internally displaced inside their own country--were gathering in the thousands near Koukou--some estimates were 8,000-9,000. Many walked, some arrived on the backs of burros, and many others were being trucked in by humanitarian groups. U.N. agencies and NGOs were rushing to provide them with emergency aid and to set up an emergency operations site where people could receive food, water, medical aid, and some form of shelter from the relentless heat.

These new internally displaced now join the more than 140,000 Chadian IDPs.

I had the privilege to watch UNHCR, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders (Medicins sans Frontierres), the ICRC, Italian Aid, and the World Food Program work together to provide emergency relief to these traumatized people.

So this year, as we meet to remember and commemorate the 92nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, I'm struggling to find meaning in the words, ``Never Again.''

I'm thankful to this community especially, which has worked tirelessly for nearly a century, to keep alive the historic memory of the Armenian Genocide and to speak out, condemn and organize against the genocides--too many--that mark the past nine decades of human history.

Thank you for your persistence. Thank you for your commitment to take action. Thank you for your generosity and compassion.

And thank you, once again, for including me in this special program.

--

[From the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Apr. 23, 2007]

`Look at Darfur,' Armenians Say

GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE RESONATES
(By Mike Elfland)

WORCESTER.--The region's Armenian community yesterday recognized a genocide that for many has a meaning with an intensifying importance.

References to Darfur and the recent slaying of a journalist who defied the Turkish government were made throughout yesterday's commemoration of what is known as the Armenian genocide. On April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, notably political leaders, were rounded up and eventually killed by the Turkish government. More than 1.5 million Armenians would later die at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, with thousands forcibly removed from Armenia to Syria, where many died in the desert of thirst and hunger.

``We say, `Look at Darfur,' '' said Richard O. Asadoorian, the host speaker at the commemoration, referring to the region in Sudan where black Africans are being massacred by militias supported by the Arab-dominated government. Mr. Asadoorian urged Armenians not to let time lessen the importance of what happened 92 years ago.

Many survivors of the genocide eventually settled in the Worcester area. A significant Armenian population remains, and their pride in their ancestry was evident yesterday at the Armenian Church of Our Saviour Cultural Center on Boynton Street, where more than 200 gathered for a welcome history lesson.

Nancy Hovhanesian, Thomas Tashjian and Ara G. Asadoorian recounted stories told to them by grandparents and other older relatives who survived the genocide. Mrs. Hovhanesian talked of the great-grandparents she never knew and of how her grandparents' pain was absorbed by her mother.

Andrea Kisiel, a sophomore at South High Community School, shared her views of the genocide in an award-winning essay. Andrea took top honors for her take on ``The Contemporary Relevance of the Armenian Genocide,'' the subject of an essay contest sponsored by the Greater Worcester Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee.

Andrea, who is not of Armenian descent, wrote of a recent trip to Washington, where she visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and had an eye-opening experience about history.

She wrote: ``Then, I saw something that astounded me, surprised me, wrenched my heart out of my chest. There, on the wall commemorating all of the poor souls who had been discriminated against, snatched away from familiarity, and tortured ruthlessly until put to death, was inscribed my family name. My name which was not from Jewish descent. My name which was Polish and Catholic. My name that I had not the slightest idea could possibly be connected with a mass genocide. My very own name, there on the wall.''

Although she has no known relatives who died in the Holocaust, said Andrea, the experience in Washington made her realize the importance of the Armenian genocide to its survivors.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, state Sen. Harriette L. Chandler, D-Worcester, and Mayor Konstantina B. Lukes were among the speakers at the 2 1/2 -hour commemoration. Both connected the past deaths of Armenians to the continuing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Mr. McGovern has long pushed for increased U.S. involvement in saving thousands of refugees.

Mr. McGovern, who was greeted enthusiastically yesterday, backs legislation that would require the U.S. government to officially recognize the Armenian genocide. Some say the reluctance is tied to deference to Turkey's importance to America's interests abroad. Modern Turkey strongly rejects the characterization of what happened as genocide.

Loud applause erupted after the congressman said he would direct naysayers to a public library where they could learn about the deaths of Armenians. ``Facts are stubborn things,'' he said.

The main speaker was filmmaker Apo Torosyan, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, who now lives in Peabody. His documentary, ``Voices,'' finished this year, is based on interviews with three survivors of the genocide. After he began making documentaries, Mr. Torosyan was not allowed to return to Turkey.

A 15-minute version of ``Voices'' was shown yesterday.

Mr. Torosyan spoke passionately about the Jan. 19 slaying in Turkey of Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent who was the editor of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper. His enemies included nationalist Turks who resented his use of the genocide label. He was killed outside his office in Istanbul.

The commemoration was organized by members of the Armenian Church of Our Saviour, Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Church of the Martyrs.

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