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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE CONTACT:
202-638-0066
October 11, 2007
Leadership Council for Human Rights applauds affirmation of Armenian Genocide Resolution by House Foreign Affairs Committee
Washington, D.C. – The Leadership Council for Human Rights applauds Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for standing firm against pressure from Turkey and the White House and voting in favor of H Res. 106, recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The non-binding resolution marks the first official U.S. acknowledgement of genocide against the Armenian people.
The Armenians, like the Jews, Native Americans, Rwandans, and all peoples whose ancestors have fallen victim to genocide, deserve justice for the crimes committed against them, and justice cannot prevail without the first step of recognition.
By passing the Armenian Genocide Resolution, Congress will formally recognize a long-ignored truth which must be acknowledged if justice is to be achieved. At issue is not whether atrocities against Armenians are worthy of the term genocide, but whether the United States stands for the truth. What can be named can be atoned. Progress for all
humankind hangs in the balance. The Turkish and Armenian peoples alike deserve a future of hope based on truth and understanding, looking forward instead of back.
Leadership Council President Kathryn Cameron Porter today commended the “courageous men and women who stood to be counted on the side of truth, who restore our faith in humanity and who are an inspiration to us all. Their stand is a testament to the ethical principals on which our nation was built.”
The Armenian Genocide began in 1915 and resulted in the death of 1.5 million “in a systematic campaign by the fraying Ottoman Empire to drive Armenians out of eastern Turkey,” according the New York Times. Ronald Reagan was the only American President to officially call Turkish actions genocide.
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