Political Quotes

“I am glad to join so many Members on the house floor to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the genocide of as many as 1.5 million Armenians and the exile of 500,000 more from the Ottoman empire. The horrors of the Armenian genocide have been outlined very ably here by several Members and collectively rank as one of the most heinous violations of human rights in history. Although many years have passed since the Armenian genocide, reminding the world what happened in the Ottoman empire between 1915 and 1923 is essential. Human right violations cannot be allowed to be obscured by the passage of time any more than they can be hidden by offending governments behind the cloak of 'internal policy.' Remembering the Armenian genocide is an integral part in healing and a step toward ending this type of horror. As Richard Cohen writes in an op-ed in the Washington Post today, barbarism akin to the Armenian genocide is happening today in Rwanda, and Bosnia, and South Africa, and elsewhere. By remembering the suffering of Armenians decades ago we highlight that human rights are indivisible--a violation of human rights anywhere is a violation of the human rights of each of us. We must work to end the 'global tribalism' that Cohen describes and stand up to the demogogues who would promote ethnic hatred.”