Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this is a week to bear witness. Today, April 24, we mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day--the day on which we remind one another of the organized campaign of deportation, expropriation, starvation--and atrocity perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian population, beginning with the detention and eventual execution of hundreds of Armenian community members on April 24, 1915, just as, a few days ago, we marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, bearing witness to the attempt by Nazi Germany to destroy Europe's Jewish population. Why do we mark these days? Because in recognizing and condemning the horror of these acts, we affirm our own humanity, we ensure that the victims of these atrocities will not be forgotten, and we warn those who believe they can perpetrate similar crimes with impunity that they will not escape the world's notice. We remind ourselves that we must never again allow such mass assaults against human decency without acting to stop them. And we mark these atrocities because only by acknowledging the violence and inhumanity can we begin the process of reconciling populations who even today are haunted by the damage done decades ago. The Ottoman campaign against the Armenians resulted in the deaths of over 1.5 million people. Large numbers of Armenians fled their homeland to seek safety elsewhere, including in Michigan and other communities in the United States.…”