Mark Souder: “I would like to join with those who are taking a few minutes today to remember and pay tribute to those Armenians who…”

“I would like to join with those who are taking a few minutes today to remember and pay tribute to those Armenians who lost their lives and national identity during one of history's most tragic examples of persecution and intolerance, the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1923. Many Armenians in America, particularly in Indiana, are the children or grandchildren of survivors. In Fort Wayne, we do not have very many Armenians, to be precise, one, sometimes two. But my friend Zohrab Taizan is a classic example of many of the Armenians in America whose family was chased out of Turkey and down into Lebanon, who moved around, having, as a child, to live in a tent, because he saw his family members slaughtered and chased from their homeland; coming over to America where they had a chance to succeed with an American dream, as Armenians actually throughout world history who have been persecuted because of their successes as merchants, and often their very success has led to persecution in many lands that they have been over time.”