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April 24, 2014

Rep. Schiff Statement on 99th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

Washington, DC –Today,Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead sponsor of the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution in Congress, released the following statement on the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, after recently delivering a “open letter” to the Turkish people on the floor of the House of Representatives, urging them to acknowledge the genocide:

"Ninety-nine years ago, the Ottoman Empire launched an all-out assault on its Armenian population.  In a brutal campaign of massacres, forced marches, looting, and rape the Ottoman Turks sought to destroy an entire people. They did so in full view of American diplomats and journalists, who reported the details of the fate of the Armenians to a shocked public back home. 

“The monstrousness of the crime was so terrible that an entirely new word had to be invented to describe it – genocide. 

“The horrors of the Armenian genocide have been compounded by decades of denial by the government of Turkey, which even today stands by its absurd claim that historians are divided over what happened to the Armenians and that the issue must be studied further.  No study is needed -- the facts are plain and evidence is abundant, including that in our own national archives and back issues of the world's newspapers.  What is needed is an unequivocal acknowledgment of the truth by Turkey and a commitment to educate its own people on the facts of the genocide after nearly a century of denial and obfuscation."