Americas

Home page

Americas

US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls 1915 events â€œgenocideâ€

27 April 2009 07:37 (UTC +04:00)

According to the APA US bureau, the pro-Armenian speaker said: â€œToday, we commemorate the 94th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and pay tribute to the victims and survivors. We know from their testimony and historical records that the Armenian genocide was conceived and carried out by the rulers of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923â€.

Pelosi, who was elected to the Congress from California, said that â€œ1.5 million Armenian people were killed and more than two million others were expelled from their homeland. International observers and diplomats to the Ottoman Empire, including U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, watched a nightmare unfurl and provided detailed accounts about â€˜a campaign of race exterminationâ€. â€œIt is long past time for the U.S. Government to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide. If we ignore history then we are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. The genocides in Rwanda and Darfur remind us that we must do more to prevent this from ever happening againâ€, said Pelosi.

US President Barack Obama characterized the 1915 events in his address on April 24 using the Armenian word. President Obama said â€œthe Meds Yeghern (it means in Armenian as â€œgreat catastropheâ€) must live on in our memories, just as it lives on in the hearts of the Armenian peopleâ€.