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Letter to the Hon. Joe Biden, President of the United States - Over 100 Bipartisan Members Urge President Biden to Recognize Armenian Genocide

Letter

By: Raul Grijalva, Jared Huffman, Josh Harder, Ro Khanna, Devin Nunes, Tony Cárdenas, Ted Lieu, Karen Bass, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Mike Levin, Scott Peters, Joe Neguse, Ed Perlmutter, Charlie Crist, Jr., Mike Quigley, Jan Schakowsky, Jim McGovern, Katherine Clark, John Sarbanes, Chellie Pingree, Debbie Dingell, Ilhan Omar, Donald Norcross, Joshua Gottheimer, Dina Titus, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat, Marcy Kaptur, Peter DeFazio, Mary Scanlon, Mike Doyle, Jr., Jim Cooper, Joaquin Castro, Abigail Spanberger, Adam Schiff, David Schweikert, John Garamendi, Barbara Lee, Anna Eshoo, Julia Brownley, Brad Sherman, Jimmy Gomez, Linda Sánchez, Alan Lowenthal, Darrell Issa, Sara Jacobs, Doug Lamborn, Jim Himes, Lois Frankel, Danny Davis, Brad Schneider, Lori Trahan, Ayanna Pressley, David Trone, Andy Levin, Rashida Tlaib, Ann Wagner, Jeff Van Drew, Albio Sires, Thomas Suozzi, Nicole Malliotakis, Sean Maloney, Dave Joyce, Brian Fitzpatrick, Chrissy Houlahan, David Cicilline, Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia, Don Beyer, Jr., Greg Stanton, Jay Obernolte, Jim Costa, Zoe Lofgren, Judy Chu, Grace Napolitano, Norma Torres, Young Kim, Michelle Steel, Juan Vargas, Diana DeGette, Jason Crow, Eleanor Norton, Carolyn Bourdeaux, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Richard Neal, Jake Auchincloss, Stephen Lynch, Jamie Raskin, Haley Stevens, Betty McCollum, Chris Pappas, Chris Smith, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Gregory Meeks, Carolyn Maloney, Paul Tonko, Earl Blumenauer, Madeleine Dean, Susan Wild, Jim Langevin, Sheila Jackson Lee, Colin Allred, Gwen Moore
Date: April 21, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs Arts, Entertainment, and History

Dear Mr. President:

Later this month, on April 24, the world will mark the 106th anniversary of the first days of the Armenian Genocide, the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, and the displacement of many more. Yet for decades, while leaders around the world recognize the first genocide of the 20th Century, the President of the United States has remained silent. We join with the proud Armenian American community and all of those who support truth and justice in asking that you clearly and directly recognize the Armenian Genocide in your April 24 statement.

We know that this is an issue you are well acquainted with from your time in the Senate and as Vice President, including shepherding S.J.Res. 212 (designating April 24, 1990, as a National Day of Remembrance of the 75th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide) through the Judiciary Committee in 1989. We also appreciate that as Vice President you attended the centenary anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015 at the National Cathedral. It was during the centennial that His Holiness Pope Francis at Mass in St. Peter's Basilica said this about the Armenian Genocide: "concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it."

The historic fact of what occurred a century ago is not in serious dispute. American diplomats of the period documented the mass slaughter of the Armenians, though they had no word for what they were witnessing. It was only decades later that Raphael Lemkin coined the term "genocide", and did so specifically with the attempted extermination of the Armenian people in mind.

In accurately describing the Genocide this year, you will be joining both the House and Senate which overwhelmingly passed resolutions doing so in 2019. Additionally, the Library of Congress has already taken the important step of cataloging books on the subject under historically accurate Armenian Genocide subject heading.

Mr. President, as you said last year in your April 24 statement, "Silence is complicity." The shameful silence of the United States Government on the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end. We urge you to follow through on your commitments, and speak the truth.


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