John Tierney: “I also rise here this evening to speak of one of the great horrors of our century, and that is the Armenian genocide. As…”

“I also rise here this evening to speak of one of the great horrors of our century, and that is the Armenian genocide. As a member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, I once again join a large number of colleagues in recognizing the great tragedy of the Armenian people. As we all know and has been stated here several times tonight, this genocide occurred in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire began to force Armenians from their homeland, and it lasted until 1923. These 8 years saw the deaths of 1.5 million innocent victims and 500,000 exiled survivors. Despite the tremendous magnitude of the genocide, the world stood by as families were torn asunder and millions of lives were taken. Therefore, today, as we stand in recognition of the victims of this Armenian genocide, we also stand in recognition of the guilt of complicity of all nations that turned away when faced with this great tragedy. There is no doubt that calling events by their rightful name, genocide, is an important element of this recognition of responsibility. Had we heeded the lessons that emerged from the massacre, perhaps we could have avoided other great tragedies in this century.”