A century after 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Empire, the House of Representatives today overwhelmingly recognized those systematic attacks and murders for what they were — a genocide.
On Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 29, 2019, the House overwhelmingly passed the Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res. 296) in a vote of 405 to 11. The resolution establishes a proactive policy of recognition and education and ensures that the United States will commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official remembrance. It also rejects all efforts to enlist, engage or otherwise associate the United States Government with the denial of the Armenian genocide or any other genocide.
Since our earliest days, Jewish World Watch (JWW) has stood in solidarity with the Armenian community and joined with them in crying out against past and present genocides. We have worked together for more than a decade to raise awareness of the scourge of genocide and to try to realize the promise of “Never Again.”
Rabbis Harold Schulweis (z”l), left, with Armenian Archbishop Hovnan Derderian at Valley Beth Shalom. Photo by Jeremy Oberstein
“Our experience with the Jewish Holocaust makes it a matter of conscience for the Jewish people to respond and recognize the grief and anguish of others. It is incumbent upon us to stand up and recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915,” the late Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, a co-founder of JWW, said in 2007. JWW celebrates today’s House vote as a monumental affirmation for the Armenian American community, many of whom reside in Los Angeles.
Previous iterations of the resolution to recognize as genocide have existed for decades. Between 1915 and 1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to the Turkish republic, in an attempted annihilation widely accepted as the first genocide of the 20th century. According to the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, 49 states have already recognized the genocide, along with dozens of other countries, including France, Germany and Russia.
Over the years, Turkey has deployed intense and effective lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill to discourage Congress from passing such a resolution, and the United States has long skirted efforts to formally recognize as the genocide the atrocities perpetrated against the Armenians and other Christians by the Ottoman Empire, specifically out of fear of inflaming Turkey, a powerful NATO ally. Turkey has consistently denied that the genocide ever occurred and asserts that efforts like H.Res. 296 respresent meddling in Turkey’s sovereign affairs.
Earlier this week, however, the resolution was greenlit by the House Rules Committee, allowing it to go straight to the House floor for fast-track consideration without having to go through a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing first. Today’s vote comes at a time when Congress has been extremely vocal in its condemnation of Turkey’s current incursion into northern Syria and the corresponding potential atrocities being perpetrated against the Syrian Kurds.
Indeed, the Armenian Genocide resolution was packaged with the Turkey Sanctions bill (H. R. 4695), another piece of legislation that also overwhelmingly passed the House today in a 403 to 16 vote. The PACT Act (Protect Against Conflict by Turkey), as it’s known, directs the U.S. President to impose visa — and asset-blocking sanctions on specific Turkish officials connected to the invasion, including Turkey’s Minister of National Defense. It also extends restrictions to other Turkish officials involved with the Syrian invasion, as well as foreign persons and financial institutions that knowingly contributed to or facilitated the operations against the Kurdish forces.
As House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) put it, “I think some of us are a little bit annoyed with Turkey, and we want them to know how much annoyed we are.”
Turkey’s widely criticized invasion of northern Syria, as well as mounting reports of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing perpetrated against civilian populations in the clearance zone, certainly paved the way for the genocide recognition, but advocacy efforts for official genocide designation have been underway for decades. At Jewish World Watch (JWW), we recognize the importance of calling a genocide by its rightful name and have played a role in this important movement for recognition and remembrance. Rabbi Schulweis vehemently spoke out in solidarity with the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to achieve official genocide designation for the atrocities perpetrated against the Armenian people.
“Humanity is subject to genocide, and amnesia is dangerous,” Rabbi Schulweis said. “If you forget or deny the first genocide of the 20th Century, you waste the experience of the past.”
Many believe that had the world confronted the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide, the Jewish Holocaust might not have happened. Historians have noted that Adolf Hitler viewed the Armenian genocide and the world’s indifference towards it as license to launch his own genocidal campaign in Europe. Genocide perpetrated and denied in one part of the world can enable and inspire similar heinous crimes in other parts of the world. Moreover, when the world responds with silence in the face of perpetrators’ denials, that offers the perpetrator license to continue its unconscionable acts against other populations.
We see this license to violence unfolding with Turkey today. As longtime JWW ally Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) passionately said on the House Floor, “It is time we recognize the genocide, because genocide denial is the last act of the genocide. First, you obliterate a people. Then, you seek to obliterate their memory. Finally, you seek to obliterate the memory of the obliteration. But genocide denial is also the first step in the next genocide,” Sherman said.
Jewish World Watch exists to stop this cycle. Recognizing and educating about genocide is a necessary tool for preventing future tragedies. We applaud both the House’s overwhelming passage of this important resolution and the related Turkey sanctions bill. Together, they send a strong message that the House of Representatives will not stand idly by in the face of an unfolding mass atrocity situation, with potential genocidal dimensions. Turkey must not be permitted to continue to target innocent civilian populations with impunity.
The House just voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide – a vote I fought for 19 years to make possible, that tens of thousands of my Armenian American constituents have waited decades to see.
We will not be party to genocide denial. We will not be silent. We will never forget. pic.twitter.com/R8Ex2lqYEb
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 29, 2019
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), another friend of JWW who represents one of the largest Armenian American constituencies in the United States, today’s advocacy victories strongly convey that “President Erdogan cannot bully the U.S. House of Representatives. He may hold sway over the President, but he does not dictate what happens in Congress. We are going to continue to speak out on a bi-partisan basis about human rights abuses committed by Turkey.”