{"id":1684,"date":"2021-03-19T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T17:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.new.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2021-03-19T10:55:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T17:55:48","slug":"37-us-senators-call-on-president-biden-to-recognize-armenian-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/37-us-senators-call-on-president-biden-to-recognize-armenian-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"37 US Senators Call on President Biden to Recognize Armenian Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)<\/strong>,\u00a0Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee<\/strong>, today led 37 of his Senate colleagues in requesting the Biden administration join the U.S. Congress in officially recognizing the\u00a0Ottoman Empire’s genocide against the Armenian people. To date, no U.S. president has made it U.S. policy to affirm the historical\u00a0facts of the Armenian Genocide, which lasted from 1915 to 1923 and resulted in the forced deportation of around 2 million Armenians, 1.5 million of whom were brutally killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe join the Armenian community in the United States and around the world in honoring the memory of these victims, and we stand firmly against attempts to pretend that this intentional, organized effort to destroy the Armenian people was anything other than a genocide,\u201d\u00a0the Senators wrote in a letter to President Biden<\/strong>. \u201cYou have correctly stated that American diplomacy and foreign policy must be rooted in our values, including respect for universal rights. Those values require us to acknowledge the truth and do what we can to prevent future genocides and other crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond recognizing the facts of the Ottoman Empire\u2019s systematic extermination of Armenians, the Senators stressed that the move would rectify the executive branch\u2019s position regarding the Genocide by aligning it with congressional consensus as well as President Biden\u2019s previous remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdministrations of both parties have been silent on the truth of the Armenian Genocide. We urge you to break this pattern of complicity by officially recognizing that the Armenian Genocide was a genocide,\u201d\u00a0added the Senators.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Menendez has led a decades long fight to honor the memory of those who perished during the Armenian genocide, calling for a U.S. foreign policy that reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. On December 12, 2019, the Senate unanimously passed Menendez\u2019s\u00a0Senate Resolution<\/a>\u00a0affirming the historical facts of the Armenian Genocide, making clear that U.S. policy must reject efforts to deny the truth of this tragedy.<\/p>\n

“We applaud Senator Menendez for his steadfast leadership in securing US affirmation of the Armenian Genocide and we thank all of the signatories of his letter for standing on the right side of history.” stated Armenian Council of America\u2019s Washington D.C. Representative Taniel Koushakjian. “With Congress\u2019 affirmation of the Armenian Genocide established, it is now incumbent on President Biden to unequivocally affirm the truth so that our foreign service officers and their counterparts around the world can speak clearly and with authority on human rights violations around the world.”<\/p>\n

Joining Chairman Menendez in signing the letter to President Biden were Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).<\/p>\n

Find a copy of the letter\u00a0HERE<\/a>\u00a0and below.<\/p>\n

Dear President Biden:<\/em><\/p>\n

We write today to strongly urge you to officially recognize the truth of the Armenian Genocide. In the past you have recognized the Armenian Genocide as genocide, including in your Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day statement during the 2020 campaign. We call on you to do so again as President to make clear that the U.S. government recognizes this terrible truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire systematically sought to eliminate the Armenian population, killing 1.5 million Armenians and driving hundreds of thousands more from their homeland. We join the Armenian community in the United States and around the world in honoring the memory of these victims, and we stand firmly against attempts to pretend that this intentional, organized effort to destroy the Armenian people was anything other than a genocide. You have correctly stated that American diplomacy and foreign policy must be rooted in our values, including respect for universal rights. Those values require us to acknowledge the truth and do what we can to prevent future genocides and other crimes against humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n

In December 2019, after decades of obstruction, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide. The House also overwhelmingly passed its own resolution recognizing the facts of the Armenian Genocide in 2019. We appreciate that in your April 2020 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day statement you pledged \u201cto support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide,\u201d but Congress has already made its position clear. It is time for executive branch to do so as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you said in your Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day statement last April, \u201cIt is particularly important to speak these words and commemorate this history at a moment when we are reminded daily of the power of truth, and of our shared responsibility to stand against hate \u2014 because silence is complicity.\u201d Administrations of both parties have been silent on the truth of the Armenian Genocide.\u00a0 We urge you to break this pattern of complicity by officially recognizing that the Armenian Genocide was a genocide.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

The Armenian Council of America is committed to promote the civic and civil rights interests of the Armenian American community, and to champion the causes and concerns of the Armenian-American community within local, state, and federal governments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2013\u00a0U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.),\u00a0Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today led 37 of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-press-releases"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate-300x189.jpg",250,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",400,252,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",610,384,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate-610x380.jpg",540,336,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg",397,250,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"ArmenianCouncil","author_link":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/author\/armeniancouncil\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a> Press Releases<\/a>","tag_info":"Press Releases","comment_count":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/US-Senate.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.armeniancouncil.org\/ACA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}