Esteban Torres: “thanks to my good friend and colleague from California, Mr. Lehman, each April both houses of Congress pause to honor…”

“thanks to my good friend and colleague from California, Mr. Lehman, each April both houses of Congress pause to honor the memory of the one and a half million Armenians who were killed between 1915 and 1923 by agents of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in what is known in infamy, and perhaps with some controversy, as the Armenian Genocide. Some would claim that our remembrance today fans the flames of atavistic hatred and that the issue of the Ottoman Government's efforts to destroy the Armenian people is a matter best left to scholars and historians. I do not agree. For whatever ambiguities may be invoked in the historic record of these events, one fact remains undeniable: the death and suffering of Armenians on a massive scale happened, and is deserving of recognition and remembrance. This solemn occasion permits us to join in remembrance with the many Americans of Armenian ancestry, to remind this country of the tragic price paid by the Armenian community for its long pursuit of life, liberty and freedom. We come together each year with this act of commemoration, this year being the 79th anniversary of this genocide, to tell the stories of this atrocity so that we will not sink into ignorance of our capacity to taint human progress with acts of mass murder.”