Transcript [PDF] - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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