Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 93rd ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I take this opportunity today to solemnly observe the 93rd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century. From 1915 until 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were brutally killed by the Ottoman Turks in a systematic effort to eradicate the Armenian people. There were unbearable acts of torture; men were separated from their families and murdered; women and children were put on a forced march across the Syrian desert without food or water.
Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, recalled:
“When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact...I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.”
Tragically, 1915 was just the beginning. We saw the horrors of genocide in World War II when Jews were subjected to systematic extermination at the hands of Adolf Hitler and his followers. Indeed, Hitler remarked at the outset of this unbridled evil, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Unfortunately, the phrase “never again” turned out to be a hollow slogan. In the later half of the last century, countries like Cambodia and Rwanda were ravaged while the world was silent. And even now, in this new century, Darfur is the latest place to experience such brutality and inhumanity as the world stands idly by, either incapable or unwilling to do what is necessary to stop the devastation and murder.
Today, the Turkish government denies what happened in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire and thus this scar on history cannot be healed until history is accurately spoken, written, and recalled. These are lessons that must be told and repeated to each and every generation.
In order for democracy and human rights to flourish, we must not support efforts to rewrite and deny history. In the United States, we strive to make human rights a fundamental component of our democracy. It is long overdue for our nation to demand that the truth be told. We must recognize the Armenian Genocide in the name of democracy, fairness, and human rights.
To that end, I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of Senator Richard Durbin’s Senate Resolution 106, calling on the President to accurately characterize the Armenian Genocide in his annual message around April 24th and to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide.
It is important that we recognize the Armenian Genocide while its survivors are still with us to tell their stories. We must recognize the genocide for the survivors. We must recognize the genocide because it’s the right thing to do. We must recognize the Armenian Genocide to help shed light on the darkness and move toward a more humane world.
