Wendy Sherman: “I join with my colleagues tonight in somber remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. Early in the 20th century, during…”

“I join with my colleagues tonight in somber remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. Early in the 20th century, during World War I and its aftermath, the Ottoman Empire attempted the complete liquidation of the Armenian population of Eastern Anatolia. We must come down to the House floor tonight not only to remember this tragic event, but we must also proclaim that the Armenian Genocide is an historical fact. There are many who deny that this first genocide of the 20th century actually took place. The American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1919 was an eyewitness. In his memoirs, he said, ``When the Turkish authorities gave the order for these deportations they were merely giving the death warrant to an entire race. They understood this well and in their conversations with me made no particular attempt to conceal this fact.'' He went on to describe what he saw at the Euphrates River. He said, as our eyes and ears in the Ottoman Empire, ``I have by no means told the most terrible details, for a complete narration of the sadistic orgies of which they, the Armenian men and women, are victims can never be printed in an American publication.”