Transcript [PDF] - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats
Transcript [PDF] - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats
Transcript [PDF] - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats
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21<br />
sional committee to hold off on a resolution declaring the Ottoman<br />
era killing of Armenians as genocide, a White <strong>House</strong> spokesman<br />
said Thursday,’’ so I stand corrected. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.<br />
Chairman BERMAN. Who seeks recognition The gentleman from<br />
New Jersey, what purpose do you seek recognition<br />
Mr. PAYNE. To strike the last word.<br />
Chairman BERMAN. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.<br />
Mr. PAYNE. And I will yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from<br />
New York to respond.<br />
Mr. ACKERMAN. I thank the gentleman. I was listening to my<br />
good friend, the ranking member of my subcommittee with whom<br />
I agree on so many other issues, that if Iran granted us a base and<br />
improved relations would we agree to set up a commission to discuss<br />
whether the Holocaust occurred I yield back my time.<br />
Chairman BERMAN. The gentleman from New Jersey controls the<br />
time.<br />
Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. Let me say that I have consistently<br />
strongly supported the recognition that genocide occurred,<br />
and I certainly strongly support H. Res. 252, the Affirmation of the<br />
United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution.<br />
As we know, this resolution calls upon the President to ensure<br />
that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding<br />
and sensitivity concerning issues related to human<br />
rights, ethnic cleansing and genocide documented in the United<br />
States record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences<br />
of the failure to recognize a just resolution.<br />
The international community has a terrible record when it comes<br />
to stepping up and stopping genocide. We know that Adolf Hitler<br />
said in 1939 that when ordering his commanders to go into Poland<br />
said who after all speaks today about the annihilation of the Armenians<br />
And if Adolf Hitler understood that the world never recognized<br />
the 1915–1923 genocide, that the world forgot about it even though<br />
there had been some people speaking out, countries speaking out<br />
during that time, he used that as one of the rationales for going<br />
with the Blitzkrieg through Europe.<br />
And so I think that we should certainly remember the past because<br />
the time has come for us to recognize it. Even Voltaire said<br />
that nothing is as powerful as a dream whose time has come and,<br />
to paraphrase, nothing is more powerful as the truth whose time<br />
has come. Now is the time.<br />
Dr. King used to say that the arch of the moral universe is long,<br />
but it bends toward justice, and the fact that no lie can live forever<br />
when he wrote his letters from the Birmingham Jail. And so I<br />
think that it is important that we recognize the truth. The truth<br />
crushed to earth will rise again, as has been said.<br />
And so with 42 states in the United States of America, if there<br />
was even a constitutional amendment this would have the requisite<br />
number of states to have the national record reflect. Eleven NATO<br />
countries have acknowledged that this has occurred. The European<br />
Parliament, which represents all of Europe, has said it.<br />
And so I think as the United States of America has stood up to<br />
the fact that it is even questioning the dropping of the atomic bomb<br />
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, looking at the legacy of enslaved peo-<br />
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