SENATE FLOOR STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY AND REMEMBERING THE HOLOCAUST
States News Service
April 24, 2012 Tuesday
The following information was released by Michigan Senator Carl
M. Levin :
Mr. President, this is a week to bear witness. Today, April 24, we
mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day the day on which we remind
one another of the organized campaign of deportation, expropriation,
starvation and atrocity perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against
its Armenian population, beginning with the detention and eventual
execution of hundreds of Armenian community members on April 24,
1915, just as, a few days ago, we marked Holocaust Remembrance Day,
bearing witness to the attempt by Nazi Germany to destroy Europes
Jewish population.
Why do we mark these days? Because in recognizing and condemning the
horror of these acts, we affirm our own humanity, we ensure that the
victims of these atrocities will not be forgotten, and we warn those
who believe they can perpetrate similar crimes with impunity that they
will not escape the worlds notice. We remind ourselves that we must
never again allow such mass assaults against human decency without
acting to stop them. And we mark these atrocities because only by
acknowledging the violence and inhumanity can we begin the process
of reconciling populations who even today are haunted by the damage
done decades ago.
The Ottoman campaign against the Armenians resulted in the deaths
of over 1.5 million people. Large numbers of Armenians fled their
homeland to seek safety elsewhere, including in Michigan and other
communities in the United States. Some have sought to deny that these
events constituted genocide. But the historical record is clear and
undeniable. I would ask any who deny the historical reality of the
Armenian genocide to read Giants of the Earth, the moving memoir
of native Detroiter Mitch Kehetian and his search for the fate of
beloved family members during the tragedy.
It is important for us to remember that these atrocities were not
committed by the Republic of Turkey. I hope that the governments of
Turkey and Armenia, encouraged by the goodwill of the community of
nations, can heal the divisions that remain from long-ago events that
nonetheless remain painful. We should also remember that Turkey played
a valuable role in supporting the international communitys efforts to
free Libya from dictatorship, and value the role that Turkey is playing
today in helping resolve the tragedy unfolding in neighboring Syria.
It is doubly tragic that the Armenian genocide is now seen as the
beginning of a decades-long series of mass atrocities. The inability
or unwillingness of the international community to come to the aid
of the Armenians emboldened others including Adolph Hitler, who told
his commanders on the eve of the invasion of Poland, Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians? And so, he launched
the Holocaust, ending the lives of six million Jews simply because
they were Jewish.
All people would like to believe that they live in a more enlightened
age, one in which we have overcome the inhumanity of the past. And
yet our own time is not immune from mass atrocity. Recent events in
Libya and Syria, to name just two, remind us that violence, oppression
and disregard for human rights remain with us.
Just as mass atrocity is still with us, so are human courage and
the determination to stand against atrocity. When the international
community came together to support the people of Libya against the
oppressive Libyan regime, we helped accomplish something important
and powerful for Libyans, but beyond that, we sent a message to other
dictators that they might not escape a response from the international
community.
I say might not because we still have a long way to go as a world
community in confronting murderous dictators. The current regime in
Syria is engaged in a campaign of attack and intimidation against its
own people. The examples of history make clear the international
communitys obligation to speak out, and to take action. It is
unfortunate that nations in a position to do so, such as China and
Russia, have blocked the United Nations from taking stronger steps.
The United States and its allies must now seek to implement additional
steps to protect innocent civilians and hold the Assad regime in
Syria accountable, including the possibility of establishing safe
havens along the border with Turkey.
While we mark these historic crimes, it is also important to recognize
signs of progress. It is significant that the United States is
now taking what promises to be not just a stronger approach to
mass atrocities, but a more effective one. A presidential directive
signed by President Obama last August states clearly: Preventing mass
atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core
moral responsibility of the United States of America. And yesterday,
the President announced that he will implement the recommendations
resulting from a comprehensive review of U.S. policy with regard to
mass atrocity.
The creation of an Atrocity Prevention Board will ensure that
prevention of these human tragedies is a focus of U.S. policy, a
national security interest we will pursue, bringing all appropriate
elements of American policy and power to bear. Importantly, U.S.
policy recognizes that military action is not our only means to prevent
mass atrocity, and that every aspect of our international involvement
intelligence, diplomacy, economic and development policy, as well as,
when called for, military power can be called upon.
We cannot prevent the madness that, even in our era, too often leads
to unspeakable crimes. But we can remember. We can speak out. And we
can act, with the range of instruments at our disposal, to prevent
those in the forefront of such madness from acting on their inhuman
schemes. May Americans never forget the genocide visited upon the
Armenians we remember today. And may our collective memories always
remind us of our responsibility to prevent atrocity in our own time.