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    Categories: 2021

Bob Dole, former Senator and a great friend of Armenians, dies at 98

Public Radio of Armenia
Dec 5 2021

US statesman, former Senator, 1996 Republican presidential nominee, and a great friend of Armenia and Armenians, Bob Dole has passed away at the age of 98.

Senator Dole advocated for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 1980-90s, but was never able to achieve that goal because it was blocked by his Senate colleagues.

But Dole had planted a seed and finally lived to see the House of Representatives, Senate, and the Executive Branch end the longest-lasting foreign gag rule in American history and dealing a major setback to Turkey’s century-long obstruction of justice for this crime against humanity.

Senator Dole always remembered his great friend, Doctor Hampar Kelikian, who saved his life during the WWII and shared his tragic family history amid the horrors that began in 1915 when the Turkish Ottoman Empire undertook a years-long campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS