Armenian Genocide Day Of Remembrance

Senate - February 22, 1990

Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, this April 24 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the rulers of the old Ottoman Empire. It is appropriate and important for the U.S. Senate to enact Senate Joint Resolution 212, designating this date as 'The National Day of Remembrance of the 75th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.'

The resolution is opposed very vigorously by the Government of Turkey. Opposition on the part of the administration has been equally intense. However, I believe it is imperative for us to be guided by our collective consciences, rather than a sense of political expediency and adopt this resolution.

President Bush stated in 1988 that `the American people, our Government and certainly the Bush administration will never allow political pressure to prevent our denunciation of crimes against humanity * * *. I would join Congress in commemorating the victims.'

In October of the same year, the President reinforced this view saying:
The United States must acknowledge the attempted genocide of the Armenian people in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, based on the testimony of survivors, scholars, and indeed our own representatives at the time, if we are to insure that such horrors are not repeated.

That is the purpose of Senate Joint Resolution 212. We seek to send a message once again to citizens of our own country and the international community that the Armenian Genocide of 1915 through 1923 should not be relegated to the dust bin of history. Documented reports from that horrible chapter in the history of man's inhumanity to his fellow man show that an estimated 1.5 million Armenians out of 2.3 Ottoman-Armenians either died or were deported from their homeland--a homeland which had been theirs for 3,000 years.

Human rights concerns among the various religious denominations were as deep-seated in the early 20th century as they are today. Much of the information concerning the Armenian genocide in the old Ottoman Empire came from Protestant missionaries working in Armenia. Their reports, and reports from other sources, so concerned the United States Ambassador to Turkey at the time, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., that he filed repeated protests to the government. A 684-page British report on the massacre was written by Viscount James Bryce with the assistance of Arnold Toynbee.

Even the old Ottoman Empire's allies during World War I, the Germans and Austrians, raised concerns about the genocide being directed against the Armenian people. The German military advisor to the Ottoman Empire, Otto Liman van Sanders, personally intervened to halt the deportation of Armenians from Smyrna in November 1916. German theologian Johnannes Lepsius, did much to expose the Ottoman atrocities in Germany through his activities among German clergymen, university professors and journalists.

But perhaps the most damning evidence of the genocide came during this century's first war crimes trial. A short-lived liberal Ottoman govenment condemned the young Turk triumvirate, responsible for ordering the genocide, to death in absentia.

The indictment, which was read during the first session of the court martial, was directed at the leaders of the young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire, and all members of the Committee of Union and Progress. The indictment stated that the committee operated as a secret agency, acting through oral and secret instructions aimed at the destruction of the Armenians and subverting the constitution.

Rather than recounting the entire indictment, I ask unanimous consent that the documents regarding the indictments and subsequent verdicts of the court martial be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(See exhibit 1.)

Mr. KERRY. I want to express my appreciation to Leo Kuper, professor emeritus at UCLA and vice president of International Alert Against Genocide and Mass Killing, for making these materials available to the Members of the Senate.

At the time of the perpetration of this mass atrocity, the United States Government was vigorous in launching protests after protest on behalf of the beleaguered Armenians. Unfortunately, there was very little we could do at the time. Ambassador Morgenthau was particularly outraged over the genocide and devoted a chapter of his book entitled, `Secrets of the Bosphorus' to the massacre. He appropriately titled the chapter `The Murder of a Nation.' I ask unanimous consent that this material be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(See exhibit 2.)

Mr. KERRY. Despite protestations to the contrary, the simple fact of the matter is that the Armenian people were eliminated from western Anatolia. Where more than a million Armenians lived before the war, almost none survived later.

Mr. President, times does not heal all wounds. Certainly it should not hide them. Just ask the families of the victims of the other two great genocides of this century, the victims of the Holocaust and the victims of the Khmer Rouge. In the case of the Armenians it has been one thing to suffer a tragedy of such horrendous proportions; it is quite another to be told that nothing occurred. Tragically, the administration opposes this resolution which calls upon the people of the United States to pause for a moment on April 24, to remember the victims of the Armenian genocide. It would be a tragedy if the Senate succumbs to political considerations which, once again, will make victims of the Armenian people.

By passing Senate Joint Resolution 212, we will be repeating the words never again. It is time to help in the healing process and extent to the Armenian people the world over the dignity and justice they so richly deserve. In so doing, we will be asserting our own right to help define civilization, to assert moral principles, and to act with basic human decency and compassion.

This resolution does not blame the Government of the Republic of Turkey for the massacre which took place under the Ottomon rulers. By so strenuously opposing this resolution, the present day government of Turkey does a disservice to itself by attempting to camouflage or avoid altogether the truth.

We cannot treat this issue like the deficit. We cannot succumb to political expediency that allows us to ignore the truth. An expendiency that allows us to ignore this truth is an expediency that allows these human tragedies to happen time and again.

Acknowledging the truth regarding this tragic chapter of history can help us to move forward. Turkey is a friend and ally of the United States. And as a friend and ally, it is important for us to counsel the Government to come to terms with this tragic event--to reach out to the Armenian people and addresses this issue with the resolve it deserves.

The persistence of the Armenian community to gain international recognition of this atrocity is appropriate, particularly in light of the cultural pain felt so deeply by all Armenians around the world. It is imperative that their efforts meet with success because it is important for the issue of genocide to be placed in front of our collective human conscience once again. In so doing, we may help to save some other culture or race from future suffering or repression from a government which has decided that genocide may once again be implemented as a national policy to deal with a minority.