Robert Weygand: “I rise today in somber recognition of the beginning of the Armenian genocide. This horrific tragedy claimed the lives of…”

“I rise today in somber recognition of the beginning of the Armenian genocide. This horrific tragedy claimed the lives of over one million Armenians in a nine-year campaign of systematic persecution, expulsion, and violence, and displaced at least a further 500,000 Armenians from their historic homeland in eastern Turkey. Few Americans are aware that the Holocaust of World War II was in fact the second genocide of this century; for political reasons, the United States government has long refused to recognize the Armenian exterminations and expulsions as a genocide. Make no mistake: this persecution was not the accidental and unfortunate by-product of a period of upheaval and chaos. From 1915 through 1923, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire attempted to erase all trace of the Armenian people and culture from Turkey. In order to achieve this goal, government forces engaged in direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches. The term ``genocide'' constitutes the only means sufficient to describe such an outrage, and the suffering of the Armenian people dictates that we acknowledge the Armenian genocide as such. While paying tribute to the victims of the Armenian genocide, however, we must not forget to celebrate the fortitude and persistence of the Armenian people who have survived and thrived in spite of this persecution.”