E 998 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks May 11, 1995

care development centers, to ensure that the

children are receiving a nutritious diet.

In short, MAOF has been at the forefront of

helping the people of the community advance

and prosper through work and education.

Mr. Speaker, it is with pride that I rise to

recognize one of the finest community organizations in the country, the Mexican-American

Opportunity Foundation, and its founder, Mr.

Dionicio Morales. I ask my colleagues to join

me in congratulating them and wishing them

continued success in their new facility.

COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN

fGENOCIDE

SPEECH OF

HON. GEORGE P. RADANOVICH OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, May 2, 1995

Mr. RADANOVICH. Mr. Speaker, this

evening I want to enter into the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD statements written by two

young Armenian students from my district.

These letters were written about the Armenian

genocide and were selected as award winning

essays by the Central California chapter of the

Armenian National Committee.

These essays are statements about the suffering the Armenian people incurred at the

hands of the Ottoman Turkish government,

and about remembering the victims of the

genocide. I am honored to represent thousands of Armenians in my district, and equally

honored that I can count essay award winners

Taleen Kojayan and Denyse Kachadoorian

among them.

MANY REASONS TO REMEMBER

(By Taleen Kojayan)

Everyone knows about the Jews and the

Holocaust, about the horrible agony they

were put through by the Germans. But who

knows about what began on the terrible day,

April 24, 1915? To most people this is just an

ordinary day from the past. It has no meaning, no significance. But, to every proud Armenian, this date means anguish and grief.

It reminds them of the torture their people

went through years before. It reminds them

of Armenian genocide.

‘‘Armenian genocide? Is that the German

thing?’’ said someone. When the word ‘‘genocide’’ is heard, that’s what most people think

of. Little do they know that there was another genocide, where two-thirds of a nation

was wiped off the face of this Earth. One and

one-half million Armenian men, women and

children massacred.

Who is responsible for the dreadful butchery of the Armenian people? The answer is

clear. There is no doubt that the Turks were

the ones who wanted to get rid of the Armenians for good.

This wasn’t the first time that the Turks

had harmed the Armenians. There is a history of conflict between them. For example

in 1896, the Turks managed to kill 300,000 Armenians. There were also other instances

during 1894, which is the time they began

their campaign to wipe out the Armenians.

Of course it isn’t logical that 1.5 million

Armenians were killed in one single day. The

day April 24 was chosen as the beginning for

a special reason. On this day, about 200 Armenian intellectuals were gathered from the

Turkish city of Istanbul. They were taken to

central Turkey and were never heard from

again. People are weaker without their leaders, and the Turks knew that. This marked

the start of the Armenian genocide.

The first place they wanted ‘‘Armenianfree’’ was Istanbul. Many Armenians lived

there who had power and money. They owned

businesses and controlled the markets. The

Turks were tired of being outnumbered by

Armenians in their own city. So, they

walked out in the streets beating a big drum.

They said they needed Armenian men between the ages of 16 and 60 to fight in the

war for them. That was just an excuse.

Some of the richer Armenians paid a fee,

called the Bedel, to try to get their sons out

of the fighting. Even though the fee was

paid, it was ignored and the men still had to

go. Others might have known that there was

more to the story than what they were being

told.

The Turks could have killed the people

right there in Istanbul, so why didn’t they?

Well, the killing couldn’t go on in Istanbul

because it was close to Europe. The Turks

couldn’t run the risk of anyone knowing. So,

the people were rounded up, taken to central

Turkey and then massacred just like the intellectuals.

So began three years of pain and death for

the Armenian people. They were tortured in

many ways. Most were sent out into the

desert with no food or water. It soon became

the grave of many helpless Armenians, including a member of my grandfather’s family. Some people were hung, and some were

shot. The heads of others who were beheaded

were displayed on wooden poles. Some little

girls who survived this horrible ordeal were

found in other homes.

All of this suffering, and who knows about

it? No one knows, and no one cares about

what happened to us. Why are the Armenians

so unimportant to this world? Yes, the massacre happened, and no, we shouldn’t live in

the past. But something like this should not

and cannot be forgotten. When the extermination of a whole race of people is attempted, everyone should remember so that

they will learn from our mistakes.

‘‘After all, who remembers today the extermination of the Armenians?’’

—Adolf Hitler, Aug. 22, 1939.

We shouldn’t forget that the Armenian

people made it through. They strived to

make sure that the Turks did not succeed.

And they accomplished just that, or else I

wouldn’t be here today. The Armenians survived, and will continue to do so.

‘‘Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you

can do it. Send them into the desert without

bread or water. Burn their homes and

churches. Then see if they will not laugh,

sing and pray again. For when two of them

meet anywhere in the world, see if they will

not create a new Armenia.’’

—William Saroyan.

[Taleen Kojayan is a 10th-grade student at

Clovis West High School.]

HORRID MEANS OF SUFFERING

‘‘We will forget our terrible wound and our

grief. We will forget, won’t we? If we return to

our land.’’

—Vahan Tekeyan, 1918.

(By Denyse Kachadoorian)

Genocide can be defined in five acts: killing members of the group, causing serious

bodily or mental harm to members of the

group, deliberately inflicting on the group

conditions of life calculated to bring about

its physical destruction in whole or in part,

imposing measures intended to prevent

births within the groups, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another

group. Unfortunately the Armenians living

in 1915 experienced these inconceivable acts,

but the survivors struggled and overcame

many hardships to rebuild their race.

The ‘‘Armenian Experience’’ started during

the late 1800s. Armenians suffered greatly

under Turkish rule from discrimination,

heavy taxation and armed attacks. From

1894 to 1896, the Turks and Kurds, under Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, carried out a campaign

to erase Armenians. Hundreds of thousands

were killed.

During World War I, Armenia became a

battleground between Turkey and Russia.

The Turks feared the Armenians would aid

the Russians. As a result, they deported Armenians living in Turkish Armenia into the

desert of present-day Syria. Approximately 1

million Armenians died of starvation or lack

of water alone. Several others fled to Russian Armenia and in 1918 formed an independent republic.

The Armenians people endured horrendous

types of suffering—physical, emotional and

tragic moral choices. Hunger plagued the

minds of many Armenians in 1915. Some people were reduced to eating grass, similar to

cattle grazing.

Several diseases were contracted during

this time; typhus, dysentery, malaria and

others. Lice was a familiar problem for these

Armenians. Children who entered orphanages

were deloused before anything else. Armenians were forced to live as wild animals, exposed to desert heat by day and freezing cold

or rain at night.

Beyond the physical pain, the genocide victims had to deal with emotional suffering.

Practically every survivor can name a family member who was murdered during this

period.

Although the massacre occurred almost 80

years ago, it continues to touch the present

generations. My paternal grandmother, born

in 1911 in Armenia, was a survivor. She vividly described her family situation as homeless and broke. Her father, grandfather and

uncle were all captured and presumably murdered. They were forced to abandon their

homes and linger around the town for any

sign of assistance. Relief arrived soon when

an uncle, who lived in the United States,

gave them enough money to emigrate to

America.

In 1915, the world became aware of the Armenian genocide by newspapers, books, articles, official investigations and eyewitness

accounts. Even following these valid accounts, the U.S. government has denied

April 24 as a day of national recognition of

the Armenian Genocide, The debates of 1985

and 1990 clearly reveal that the world is still

withholding a formal declaration of these

terrible events. The reason behind the U.S.

government’s decision for rejecting the day

is that Turkey is an important NATO ally

and jeopardizing the national security over

an issue so insignificant would not be in the

best interests of the American public.

As a result, the American government denied the day of remembrance to Armenians.

This decision was hard to swallow for Armenian-Americans. They felt that the government to which they held allegiance to, contributed to and fought for had slighted them

as a race. Armenians who began a new life in

the United States decided to put aside their

troubles and past experiences and work hard

in their new homeland. Their determination

and work ethic enabled them to blossom into

reputable citizens of this country.

These survivors have rebuilt a proud race

with strong family unity, despite the disappointing fact that they are disregarded as

victims of an international atrocity by their

government. Nevertheless, Armenians are

proud of themselves, their fellow brothers

and their history.

[Denyse Kachadoorian is in the 11th grade

at Bullard High School.]