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Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

Date: April 22, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Arts, Entertainment, and History

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solemn recognition of the 100-year anniversary of the genocide of over 1 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Armenian genocide began April 24, 1915, when 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were arrested. By 1918, between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians had disappeared, been killed through massacres, or subjected to forced labor and death marches in the desert.

The Armenian genocide joins other great human tragedies of the 20th century, including the Holocaust perpetuated by Nazi Germany against Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Christians, and political opponents; the massacre of the Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide; the Khmer Rouge; and Joseph Stalin's mass murders.

I rise today to remember those whose lives perished in the Armenian genocide and to recognize the Armenian Americans in their ongoing quest to ensure that those who perished are remembered for their loss of life in one of the most tragic genocides of the 20th century.

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