Posted in Category One, Featured, News
Statement by President Joe Biden on Armenian Remembrance Day
APRIL 24, 2021, The White House
Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring. Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination. We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms.
Of those who survived, most were forced to find new homes and new lives around the world, including in the United States. With strength and resilience, the Armenian people survived and rebuilt their community. Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history that brought so many of their ancestors to our shores. We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.
Today, as we mourn what was lost, let us also turn our eyes to the future—toward the world that we wish to build for our children. A world unstained by the daily evils of bigotry and intolerance, where human rights are respected, and where all people are able to pursue their lives in dignity and security. Let us renew our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world. And let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world.
The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/24/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-armenian-remembrance-day/
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Posted in Annual Congressional, Category One, Featured, News
A Socially Just Democracy Makes For a More Perfect Union
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Posted in Annual Congressional, Category One
2019 Saint Andrew’s Human Rights & Religious Freedom Reception – David L. Phillips, Keynote Speaker
Please take a moment to watch David L. Phillips, Director Of The Program On Peace-building And Rights At Columbia University’s Institute For The Study Of Human Rights Discuss Turkey’s Targeting Of Ethnic And Religious Minorities In Syria.
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Posted in Category One
U.S. House recognizes Armenian genocide, backs Turkey sanctions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to recognize the mass killings of Armenians a century ago as a genocide, a symbolic but historic vote instantly denounced by Turkey.
The Democratic-controlled House voted 405-11 in favor of a resolution asserting that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey.
The vote marked the first time in 35 years that such legislation was considered in the full House, underscoring widespread frustration in Congress with the Turkish government, from both Democrats and President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans.
Shortly after the Armenian genocide vote, House lawmakers from both parties also overwhelmingly backed legislation calling on Trump to impose sanctions on Turkey over its offensive in northern Syria, another action likely to inflame relations with NATO ally Turkey.
The fate of both measures in the Senate is unclear, with no vote scheduled on similar legislation.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.
Ankara views foreign involvement in the issue as a threat to its sovereignty.
For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns that it could complicate relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by the Ankara government.
U.S. lawmakers have been fuming about Turkey, however, in recent months, because of its purchase of a Russian missile defense system in defiance of U.S. sanctions and, more recently, its incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces after Trump abruptly announced he was withdrawing U.S. troops from the area.
QUICK CONDEMNATION BY TURKEY
Turkey quickly condemned both resolutions, saying the genocide resolution “is devoid of any historical or legal basis,” and adding: “As a meaningless political step, its sole addressees are the Armenian lobby and anti-Turkey groups.”
Its Foreign Ministry said the sanctions measure, which targets senior officials and the Turkish armed forces, was “incompatible with the spirit of our NATO alliance,” and contradicted a ceasefire agreement for northern Syria reached with the Trump administration on Oct. 17.
“We urge the U.S. Congress, not to exploit bilateral issues for domestic political consumption and to act in line with the spirit of our Alliance and partnership,” the ministry said in a statement, urging the Trump administration to take action to prevent a further deterioriation in relations.
Turkey views the Kurds in northern Syria as a security threat. Many members of Congress were furious about the assault against Kurdish troops, who until recently were fighting alongside U.S. forces against Islamic State militants.
Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, whose California district is home to a large Armenian-American population, has sought passage of such legislation for 19 years. He urged support for the measure in an emotional House speech that referenced the Kurds.
“When we see the images of terrified Kurdish families in northern Syria, loading their possessions into cars or carts and fleeing their homes headed to nowhere except away from Turkish bombs and marauding militias, how can we say the crimes of a century ago are in the past?” he said.
“We cannot. We cannot pick and choose which crimes against humanity are convenient to speak about. We cannot cloak our support for human rights in euphemisms. We cannot be cowed into silence by a foreign power,” Schiff said.
Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Editing by Chris Reese and Peter Cooney
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-turkey-armenia/us-house-recognizes-armenian-genocide-backs-turkey-sanctions-idUSKBN1X82LY
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