US Fed News
April 21, 2005 Thursday 5:52 AM EST
REP. WEINER COMMEMORATES 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
WASHINGTON
Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, D-N.Y. (9th CD), issued the following Press
release:
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens & Brooklyn), a member of the House
Armenian Caucus, entered the following statement into the
Congressional Record to remember those lost in the Armenian genocide
90 years ago. Rep. Weiner recalled the Armenian men, women, and
children killed by the Ottoman – Turkish Empire, and urged official
United States recognition of the genocide.
“April 24th marks the 90th commemoration of the Armenian genocide. On
that day, Ottoman Turkish leader Talaat Paskha uttered the
frightening directive to ‘Kill every Armenian man, woman, and child
without concern.’ And between 1915 and 1921, more than 1.5 million
Armenians were slaughtered, approximately 80% of the population.
“Some mistakenly believe that recent events make the Armenian tragedy
seem long ago. To the contrary, its relevance has a heightened
importance today. One week before Hitler invaded Poland in the fall
of 1939, he ordered his generals ‘to kill without pity or mercy all
men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a
way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks
nowadays about the Armenians?’
“That is precisely why we must still talk about the Armenians today.
And we must still talk about the Jews, and the Poles, and the
Russians, and the Catholics, and the Tutsis, and the moderate Hutus,
and the Sudanese whose lives have been lost to genocide.
“As we gather today to pay tribute, it is time for the U.S. Congress
to finally designate what we all know to be a case of genocide. While
tragically it may not be the last, it is time to correct history in
the minds of many and finally declare the Armenian genocide the
holocaust that it was.”
On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman – Turkish Empire executed hundreds of
Armenian leaders and intellectuals, initiating an eight year reign of
terror during which 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children
were killed. The United States Government has never officially
recognized the Armenian genocide.