Russ Feingold: “this month people around the world are joining together to remember and honor the men, women, and children who perished…”

“this month people around the world are joining together to remember and honor the men, women, and children who perished in the Armenian genocide. One and a half million Armenians were systematically massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and over 500,000 more were forced to flee their homeland of 3,000 years. It is important that we note this terrible tragedy. When the Armenian genocide occurred, from 1915 to 1923, the international community lacked a name for such atrocities. In January 1951, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide entered into force to affirm the international commitment to prevent genocide and protect basic human decency. Today, we have the words to describe this evil, and we have an obligation to prevent it. But we must also have the will to act. The Armenian genocide may have been the first instance of what Winston Churchill referred to as ``the crime without a name,'' but it was certainly not the last. During the Holocaust, and later in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the world has seen the crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide recur again and again. Too often, the international will to stop atrocities has been lacking, or far too late in coming. Today, as the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, continues to unfold, we have to muster the will and the sense of urgency required to save innocent lives.…”