On the recordApril 25, 2012
Madam Speaker, 97 years ago, the Ottoman Empire orchestrated a murderous campaign that resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children and forced hundreds of thousands into exile. Growing up in Fresno, California, the place William Saroyan, a great American author of Armenian descent, called home, I heard the stories of this tragic time between 1915 and 1923. The sons and daughters of survivors, time and time again, told the stories of their families. The facts are clear. What happened 97 years ago can only be called by one name: genocide--the first genocide of the 20th century. Yet after nearly a century, the House of Representatives and current and past American Presidents have refused to recognize the Armenian genocide as such. We cannot wait for a convenient moment, for it's not a convenient truth. Man's inhumanity to mankind never is. Now is the time to pass House Resolution 304 that I am a cosponsor of and formally recognize the Armenian genocide. ____________________
