REP. COSTA STATEMENT REGARDING 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Targeted News Service
April 27, 2010 Tuesday 1:41 PM EST
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif. (20th CD), issued the following news release:
Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) today made the following statement
on the floor of the House of Representatives regarding the 95th
anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide.
Video of Costa’s remarks can be seen here
( /tYIgu14mqyc). Excerpts
from Costa’s statement (as prepared) are below:
"This past Saturday marked the 95th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. Last Saturday, I joined with Fresno’s Armenian community to
commemorate this horrific tragedy. Today, I once again call upon this
body to pass the Armenian Genocide Resolution to officially recognize
this genocide in our nation.
"In my remarks before the Foreign Affairs Committee markup of H. Res.
252, The Armenian Genocide Resolution, I indicated how historians had
clearly documented this event. I said, ‘My Armenian friends believe
this systematic approach to eliminate the Armenian communities from
their homes and farms was among the first genocides of the 20th
century, and so do I.’
"Theodore Roosevelt once wrote, ‘…the Armenian massacre was the
greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to
condone it … the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror
means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is
mischievous nonsense.’
"There is never a ‘right time,’ to recognize genocide and we
cannot wait around for a convenient moment to recognize this truly
catastrophic event."