May 3, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E 943

age of 20. He established a poultry farm which

sold and exported high quality eggs to the

local community and off-island localities such

as Wake, Midway, and Johnston Islands.

The destruction brought about by World War

II opened a window of opportunity for him to

focus on the field of construction and development. In 1947, he joined Kenneth T. Jones, Jr.

and Segundo Leon Guerrero in the formation

of the Pacific Construction Co. Roughly 4

years later, he and family members founded

the Frank D. Perez and Bros. Co., a conglomerate comprising a hardware store, a concrete

block plant, and a construction company.

Frank served as its president and general

manager.

The company was incorporated in 1960 and

came to be known as Perez Bros., Inc. They

have since been pioneers in the development

of housing subdivisions on the island.

Perezville, the island’s first private housing

subdivision, was the outcome of this campaign

spearheaded by Frank through Perez Bros. A

virtual wilderness back in 1933 when Frank

first acquired the land, Perezville, is now regarded as one of the island’s best housing developments. Perezville and scores of high

quality structures around the island could be

considered as legacies of Frank Perez and

Perez Bros.

His involvement in business ventures, however, has never caused him to cut back on his

civic commitments. Aside from active participation in church and community projects, he

has also made a mark in local governmental

affairs. He was appointed to the House Assembly in 1937 while still in his twenties and

went on to serve as an elected member of the

Guam Legislature and its predecessor, the

Guam Congress. It was as a senator in the

Eighth Guam Legislature in 1965 that he

sponsored a bill that established the Guam

Economic Development Authority [GEDA], the

agency which became the catalyst for Guam’s

economic development.

After seemingly countless decades of dedicated service and substantial contributions to

the community, Frank Perez still chooses to

remain active. He still attends to the business

of Perez Bros. With Frank on the job, the island can continue to count on Perez Bros. to

provide the same quality products and service

that we have grown accustomed to during the

more than four decades under his supervision.

Frank D. Perez, for the better part of this

century, has contributed greatly to every aspect of Guam’s development. I would like to

take this occasion to commend and congratulate him on all his accomplishments and on

his well-deserved induction to the Guam Business Hall of Fame. I join his wife, the former

Carmen Sirena Camcho Duenas; his children;

Frank, Joseph, Gregory, George, Thomas,

Daniel, John, Mary, Carmen, and Margarita;

who, together with the Guam Chamber of

Commerce and the people of Guam, celebrate

this man’s extraordinary accomplishments.

COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN

GENOCIDE

SPEECH OF

HON. MICHAEL BILIRAKIS OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, May 2, 1995

Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise

today with my colleagues Representative JOHN EDWARD PORTER and Representative FRANK PALLONE to commemorate and remember the victims of

the Armenian genocide, a sad chapter

of world history that remains unrecognized by our Government to this day.

As many of my colleagues have already stated, between the years of 1915

and 1923, a systematic and deliberate

campaign of genocide by the Ottoman

Turkish Government resulted in the

deaths of more than 11⁄2 million Armenians and the exile of a Nation from its

historic homeland. One witness noted

the ferocity of the attack by stating

that the streets ran with blood.

The United States Ambassador to

Turkey at the time, Henry Morgenthau, a witness to the genocide, noted

that ‘‘When the Turkish authorities

gave the orders for these deportations,

they were giving the death warrant to

a whole race; they understood this

well, and in their conversations with

me, they made no particular attempt

to conceal the fact.’’

Mr. Speaker, I believe that it is long

past time for the Congress to officially

recognize the fact that such a terrible

crime against humanity took place. To

do less would be irresponsible and

wrong. The United States Archives

contain extensive documentation regarding the Ottomon Turkish Government’s premeditated attack on the Armenian people between 1915 and 1923.

The Archives also document American interventions to prevent the full

realization of Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal plan and provide humanitarian

assistance to those who survived.

Mr. Speaker, how long will we as a

Nation turn our backs on this vicious

crime? How long can we let it escape

official documentation? It is time that

America of today take its rightful

place alongside of America of that day,

the America of Henry Morgenthau, the

America that stood up to the Ottoman

depredations and offered what assistance it could.

COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN

Surely, this is the least we can do.

fGENOCIDE

SPEECH OF

HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY OF CALIFORNIA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, May 2, 1995

Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker I rise to join

my colleagues today in honoring the memory

of the 1.5 million Armenians who perished during the genocide of 1915. This horrible period

still haunts us today, and the memory of the

men, women, and children who perished remains.

This was the first true genocide of the 20th

century. Despite the atrocities which occurred

at the hands of the Turkish Empire, despite

the documentation, the eyewitness reports,

and countless publications which describe

these atrocities, some people continue to deny

that this crime against humanity actually took

place.

Fortunately, there are many Members of

Congress who have been willing to rise up

and take a stand against this denial. I want to

take this opportunity to thank the Members

who joined me in initiating a letter to President

Clinton, urging him to officially recognize the

Armenian genocide: FRANK PALLONE, JOHN

PORTER, and MARGE ROUKEMA. Congress can

only make its voice heard on this issue if people like us, Democrats and Republicans, east

coast and west coast, join forces to push for

the recognition of this terrible human tragedy.

I would also like to thank the Armenian National Committee, especially Elizabeth

Chouldjian, for her ongoing vigilance and dedication in providing me with useful and timely

information on Armenian issues. Without your

help, Elizabeth, I would be unable to do this

work on behalf of Armenian-Americans in my

district and around the country.

Mr. Speaker, if the international community

is serious about preventing crimes against humanity, it is essential for us to recognize the

atrocities that occurred against the Armenian

people at the beginning of this century, by

honoring the memory of 1.5 million men,

women, and children who perished. I urge my

colleagues to join me in recognizing the 80th

anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

COMMEMORATING THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN

fGENOCIDE

SPEECH OF

HON. WILLIAM O. LIPINSKI OF ILLINOIS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, May 2, 1995

Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, this year marks

the 80th anniversary of a profound tragedy. I

am referring to the Armenian genocide of

1915 to 1923, carried out by the Ottoman Empire.

It is not a story that is widely known. There

is little mention of it in our history books. It is

not taught to our children in school. And it is

not commemorated on the kind of scale it deserves. On behalf of the Armenians who live

in my community, I take this opportunity to

honor the victims of the genocide.

The Armenian genocide was the culmination

of a long effort by the Ottoman Turks to destroy the Armenian people. During the decades preceding the First World War, the Ottoman government tried repeatedly to achieve

this goal. In 1895 300,000 died. In 1909 another 30,000 died before the Western powers

intervened to stop the bloodshed.

Unfortunately, World War I provided the

cover they needed. With Europe and the United States preoccupied by war, the Ottoman