Political Quotes

“today I join my colleagues in solemn remembrance on the 79th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Turks. I regret that this observance is made necessary by the inhuman actions taken 79 years ago; yet it is important that we remember the Armenian people and the tragedy they suffered. Over a million Armenians were exiled and eventually murdered by the Ottoman Turks beginning on April 24, 1915. As a result of this genocide, the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire was effectively eliminated through a carefully executed government plan. We take for granted the United States' founding principle of the inalienable right to life. The Armenians had long been denied that basic right, first between 1894 and 1896, when close to 200,000 Armenians were massacred under the harsh rule of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. When he stepped down fifteen years later, the Armenians were hopeful of an end to their terror when the ruling party promised democratic reforms and constitutional rights. But the Armenians had long suffered the disrespect of the Ottomans, and that unfortunately did not change. Such disrespect can be so intensified that it allows one group of people to justify the dehumanization and utter annihilation of another group of people. That tragic disrespect is precisely what befell the Armenians in 1915, and that is the tragedy that we cannot forget.”