Political Quotes

“I am honored to join with so many of my colleagues in recalling the horrors visited upon the Armenian people and to take a stand against those who would deny the past in order to shape the future. The Armenian Genocide, which occurred between 1915 and 1923, resulted in the deliberate death of 1.5 million human souls, killed for the crime of their own existence. A shocking forerunner of still greater slaughter to come in the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide marked a critical point in history, when technology and ideology combined with the power of the state to make war on an entire people. The Ottoman Empire's campaign to eliminate the whole of the Armenian population existing within its borders was no accident, no mistake made by a minor functionary. Genocide was official policy and 1.5 million corpses were the result. The innocent, the harmless, the blameless, without regard to age, sex or status, they were the victims of deportation, starvation and massacre. When we here, in the House of Representatives, recall the deaths of the innocent of Armenia, we stand as witnesses to history and recognize the common bond of humanity.”