Katie Porter: “today I come to the floor again to commemorate the anniversary of one of the darkest stains on the history of Western…”

“today I come to the floor again to commemorate the anniversary of one of the darkest stains on the history of Western civilization, the genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Turkish Empire. I greatly appreciate the strong support of so many of our colleagues in this effort, especially that of the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) my fellow cochairman of the Armenian Issues Caucus. I commend the gentleman for arranging this evening and for his continued dedication to these vitally important issues. Mr. Speaker, there is not a single Member here who wishes that we did not have to have this special order. We would like to believe that such a tragedy could have never happened, because it is painful to accept that man is capable of perpetuating and tolerating such atrocities. Unfortunately, however, we have seen over and over the tragic results of hatred and ignorance; the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, the Rwandan genocide. And too often, the so-called civilized nations of the world have turned a blind eye.”