Political Quotes

“Madam President, I thank my colleague and friend, the Senator from New Jersey, for his powerful remarks, and I rise today and celebrate a bipartisan achievement--an achievement of the Senate; an achievement for truth; an achievement for speaking the truth to darkness, for speaking the truth to evil, for speaking the truth to murder, for speaking the truth to genocide. This journey has been a long journey. Senator Menendez has been fighting this fight a long time. I have been proud to stand by his side. This is the third week in a row we have come to the Senate floor seeking to pass this resolution. I am grateful that today we have succeeded. The Menendez-Cruz resolution affirms U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide. It has been far too long in coming. From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire carried out a forced deportation of nearly 2 million Armenians, of whom 1.5 million were killed. It was an atrocious genocide. That it happened is a fact and undeniable reality. In fact, the very word ``genocide'' literally means the killing of an entire people, and it was coined by Raphael Lemkin to describe the horrific nature of the Ottoman Empire's calculated extermination of the Armenians. It is why we have the horrid word ``genocide'' in our English language. Over 100 years ago, the world remained silent as the Armenian people suffered and were murdered. Even today, many people are unaware of what happened. But we must never be silent in response to atrocity.…”