Sean Patrick Maloney: “as a proud member of the Armenian Congressional Caucus here in Washington, and we have over 90 members, and as a…”

“as a proud member of the Armenian Congressional Caucus here in Washington, and we have over 90 members, and as a representative of a very large and vibrant community of Armenian Americans, I rise today to join many of my colleagues in the sad commemoration of the Armenian genocide. Today we remember the tragedy where more than 1.5 million Armenians were murdered at the hands of the Turks and more than 500,000 others were deported. Unfortunately, there were others included in this massacre, including Assyrians and Pontic Greeks, bringing the number to well over 3.5 million lost lives. Today, April 24, marks the 86th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide. It was on this day in 1915 that more than 200 Armenian religious, political and intellectual leaders were gathered together and murdered in Constantinople. This was the beginning of an organized, brutal campaign to eliminate the Armenian presence from the Ottoman Empire. This campaign lasted for over 8 years. During this time, Armenians were systematically uprooted from their homeland of over 3,000 years and eliminated through massacres or deportation. But Armenians are strong people, and their dream of freedom did not die. More than 70 years after the genocide, the new Republic of Armenia was born as the Soviet Union crumbled. Today, we pay tribute to the courage and strength of people who would not know defeat.”