ARMENIAN AMERICANS MOURN PASSING OF CHAIRMAN TOM LANTOS

DeFacto Agency
Feb 12 2008
Armenia

February 11 the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
joined with Armenian Americans from across the United States in
mourning the loss of long-serving California Congressman Tom Lantos,
a Holocaust survivor and human rights champion who, in his final
months in office, played a vital role, as Chairman of the U.S. House
Foreign Affairs Committee, in this panel’s adoption of the Armenian
Genocide Resolution.

In separate letters to Congressman Lantos’ wife of 58 years, Annette,
and to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian
underscored the gratitude of the Armenian American community to
Chairman Lantos for his leadership in rejecting the powerful forces
of denial and securing, this past October, his Committee’s passage
of the Armenian Genocide Resolution. Hachikian also shared the hope
and expectation that the full House of Representatives will, in the
coming weeks, complete the Chairman’s unfinished work by securing
full Congressional recognition and commemoration of this crime against
all humanity.

Speaking on the PBS Newshour on October 11, 2007, a day after the
Resolution’s adoption at the committee level, Chairman Lantos told
correspondent Margaret Warner that, "This is one of those events,
Margaret, which has to be settled once and for all: 1.5 million
utterly innocent Armenian men, women and children were slaughtered.

And the Turkish government, until now, has intimidated the Congress of
the United States from taking this measure. . . I think it’s important,
at a time when genocides are going on in Darfur and elsewhere, not
to be an accomplice in sweeping an important genocide under the rug."

Elected to office in 1980, Lantos was Chairman of the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs and one of the country’s leading champions of
human rights. In 1983 he co-founded the congressional Human Rights
Caucus. Commenting on her husband’s passing, his widow noted that
his life was "defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication
to his principles and to his family." The date for a public memorial
service has not yet been set.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress