100th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.

Now, I know a number of other Members were planning to join me--there has been some confusion as to the schedule--but I hope that Members interested in this issue would come to the floor and join me during the next 30 minutes.

I would like to thank the gentleman from Long Beach, California, Mr. Alan Lowenthal, for being at the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, of which I am the ranking member, so that I can be here on the floor at this important time.

Mr. Speaker, today, it is the afternoon of April 23 here in our Nation's Capital; but in Istanbul, it is night. It is about to be midnight, bringing in the 24th of April. As we are here, at this very hour, 100 years ago, agents of the Ottoman Government, the government ruling the Ottoman Empire, went out into the night to arrest the leadership of the Armenian community there in Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Soon the rest of the plan went into effect. Having arrested and killed the leadership of the Armenian community, agents of the Ottoman Empire felt free to go into the ancient Armenian lands of Eastern Anatolia and begin a process of ethnic cleansing, to begin a process of mass murder, to begin a process of sending people into the desert to die or simply annihilating them on the spot, to begin a well-thought-out plan of genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.

Now, I am asked: Why is it so important that we remember this genocide? Well, first, genocide denial is the last step of the genocide itself. When I say genocide denial, you might think that, in recounting history of 100 years ago, that I was simply here to commemorate and to mourn.

Unfortunately, the government of modern Turkey has begun and continued a multimillion dollar plan of threats, of lobbying, of secret money, all designed to deny the Armenian genocide. That genocide denial is the last stage of the genocide that began 100 years ago this hour.

First, in a genocide, a people is destroyed, and then we see the destruction of the memory of their annihilation; but worse than genocide denial being the last step of a genocide, it is the first step of the next genocide.

When Adolf Hitler was talking to his henchmen and they wondered whether they could get away with the total destruction of the Jewish people, he was able to turn to them, as he did, and said:

Who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?

This genocide denial creates the expectation among other evil men that they can get away with genocide. Why do we here, in the United States, kowtow to Turkey's demand that we fail to recognize the Armenian genocide?

Last week, the European Union overwhelming passed a recognition recognizing not only the murders and atrocities that took place in Eastern Anatolia, but also using, as was appropriate, the word ``genocide.''

A few days before, Pope Francis used the word ``genocide'' for the first time in the history of the Vatican to commemorate this 100th anniversary of massacres. Over 40 State legislatures in our own country and 20 foreign governments have recognized that the acts of the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians in the early 20th century constituted a genocide.

It is time for this Congress to do what then-Senator Barack Obama did and acknowledge that what happened 100 years ago today, what began 100 years ago today, was, indeed, a genocide.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. I thank the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I want to associate myself with his comments and particularly thank him for focusing our attention on the struggles of the people of Artsakh.

Mr. Speaker, one should remember that, with the support of the Government of Turkey, the Government of Azerbaijan has threatened to shoot down civilian airplanes headed to the Stepanakert Airport. Those are the kinds of threats and intimidation that the people of Armenia and of Nagorno-Karabakh face today.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. I thank the gentleman for his comments.

Mr. Speaker, I am here on the House floor where we, today, should be voting on a resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide. Several of us, I believe including the gentleman from California, introduced the Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution, but that resolution is not on the floor today because of the pressures, arguments, and an incredibly expensive lobbying campaign by the Turkish Government.

It was 100 years ago today, as I pointed out in the beginning, that 650 writers, lawyers, poets, doctors, priests, and politicians were rounded up, deported, and murdered by the Ottoman Government. No one should give any credence to the argument that somehow these were a few individuals who were acting alone, that this was not a coordinated governmental campaign. There were 1 million to 1.5 million people who died, and it was because of a premeditated and carefully planned effort by the Ottoman Government.

Now, we are told that Turkey is an ally of the United States and that, therefore, we dare not recognize the genocide here on the House floor.

First, I believe that there is nothing that we could do that is more important for the people of Turkey than to recognize the genocide and to urge them to do so as well. How will Turkey be a great country in the future if it is so focused on lying about its past? What relationship would we have with the government in Berlin if it were engaged in a Holocaust denial? Who in the world would trust American leadership if the government here in Washington were lying or denying slavery? Every nation has a past. Every nation ought to honestly come to grips with that past.

Then we are told that we cannot recognize the genocide because of threats from the Turkish Government.

Never have I been more ashamed of this Congress than in its kowtowing to threats that turn out to be not only outrageous but illusory. Turkey threatened harsh retribution for those countries that recognized the genocide and then took only token steps against Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, and 10 other countries. Some 40 American State legislatures have recognized the Armenian genocide and have not lost a single dollar of exports to Turkey. The greatest attempt by the Turkish Government to muzzle a national legislature was their effort, roughly a decade ago, to prevent France from recognizing the genocide. They threatened an economic boycott. In the 6 years that followed France's courageous recognition of the genocide, exports from France to Turkey increased fourfold.

The only thing worse than kowtowing to ridiculous and outrageous threats is kowtowing to ridiculous and outrageous threats that turn out to be illusory paper tigers.

Finally, I have to comment on just how outrageous it is for Turkey to be threatening the United States, because look at what we have done for Turkey.

In the years since World War II, we have saved them from communism and the Soviet Union. We disbursed over $23 billion in aid. We prevented the creation of a fully sovereign and independent Kurdish state. We helped build the pipeline that brings them oil today, and we have been the loudest voice in urging that Turkey be admitted to the European Union. After we have done all of that, they say it is not enough and that we have to be accomplices with them in denying and in hiding the first genocide of the 20th century.

This is outrageous. It is time for this Congress to show that America is worthy of world leadership, not only because of our values of freedom and democracy, but because we have the courage to acknowledge the facts that actually occurred, and we are not tempted to gain some sort of illusory alliance advantage by denying the greatest crime that a nation can commit.

I think, as we see the last persons who survived the genocide--or the nieces and nephews of those who died--come to the end of their days, that America should recognize this great genocide.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source