Gary Condit: “I rise today to honor the 1.5 million Armenians that were exterminated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire between 1915 and…”

“I rise today to honor the 1.5 million Armenians that were exterminated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. On April 24, 1915, hundreds of religious, political and intellectual leaders were rounded up, exiled and eventually murdered. The male population, already conscripted into the Ottoman Army, was disarmed, placed in work battalions, and gradually executed: The surviving women were sent on death marches through the desert. Those who survived this massacre were permanently exiled from their historic homeland. The Turkish Ottoman Empire pursued a deliberate campaign to systematically eliminate the Armenian people and erase a culture and its history that dates back 3000 years. The Armenian Community in this Nation exists largely as a result of the Armenian genocide, as most are direct descendants of survivors. Mr. Speaker, we must recognize such crimes against humanity and never allow them to be forgotten; for only then can we prevent them from ever occurring again.”