The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H11468-H11469 on Oct. 10, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. KIRK. Madam Speaker, for more than 90 years, Armenians were denied recognition for the genocide of 1915. We promised in 1945 to never forget the Holocaust, to remember when such atrocities are committed. But the world could well forget the first genocide of the 20th century. In fact, Hitler used the world's denial of the Armenian genocide as the justification for his invasion of Poland and the ensuing murder of Europe's Jewry.
In a speech he gave in 1939, Adolf Hitler stated, ``I have placed my death-head formation in readiness, with orders to send death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women and children of Polish derivation and language. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?''
Unfortunately, Members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, are seeking to, once again, bury this to appease Turkey. We remember Turkey well, a formerly strong NATO ally; but in 2003, when the United States Army requested permission to transit this ally's territory, Turkey said no, a decision which cost the lives of American service men and women.
Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, once an ardent supporter of the Armenian Genocide resolution, is now registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of the Turkish Government. Like many other former Members of Congress, he is lobbying against a bill that he cosponsored when he served in this body. As a defender of human rights, our country must formally recognize the genocide that Hitler so easily dismissed.
From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Turks systemically annihilated more than 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. There is no other way to describe this organized campaign of murder other than as genocide.
The Armenian Genocide resolution, H. Res. 106, was just approved today by a vote of 27-21 in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. I urge Speaker Pelosi to bring this important resolution to the floor so that we may finally provide the Armenian community with the recognition that they deserve.
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