09/02/16 - The Congressional Armenian Caucus Leadership congratulates the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh on 25 years of independence.
Read about it here. 07/13/2016: Congressional Armenian Caucus announces expanded leadership, with Rep. Schiff becoming a Vice-Chair.
Read news coverage here. 06/02/2016 - Rep. Schiff issued a statement welcoming Germany's recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Read his full statement here. 04/20/16 - Rep. Schiff offered remarks on the House floor - Mr. Speaker, an open letter to President Barack Obama.
Dear Mr. President:
In 2009, less than a year after assuming the Presidency, you accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. You began your acceptance of this honor by acknowledging that it was bestowed at the ``beginning, and not the end of, my labors on the world stage.''
You spoke on that day with eloquence and conviction about fundamental human rights, rights that are endowed not by accidents of birth like nationality or ethnicity or gender, but by our common humanity. And the principles that you articulated have indeed guided and defined your Presidency.
In your foreign policy, you have emphasized the rights of ethnic and religious minorities worldwide and put these causes closer to the center of our foreign policy. You have extended aid to refugees fleeing horrific violence. You established the Atrocities Prevention Board to coordinate and monitor our efforts to prevent mass atrocities and genocide .
In a few days, you will have a chance to add to your legacy. On April 24, the world will mark 101 years since the systemic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, from 1915 to 1923. The facts of the slaughter are beyond dispute, and I know that you are well-acquainted with these horrors visited upon the Armenian people, having spoken eloquently about them as a Senator.
I have sat with survivors of the genocide , men and women, their numbers dwindling year after year, and heard them recall the destruction of their lives and their families and all they had known. As children, they were forced from their homes and saw their family beaten, raped, and murdered. They fled across continents and oceans to build lives in our Nation.
Mr. President, for them and for their descendants, the word ``genocide'' is sacred because it means that the world has not and will not forget. To deny genocide , on the other hand, is profane. It is, in the words of Elie Wiesel, a ``double killing.''
This April 24 will be your final opportunity to use the Presidency to speak plainly about the genocide . In past years as President, you have described the campaign of murder and displacement against the Armenian people as a ``mass atrocity,'' which it surely was.
But, of course, it was also much more; and you have avoided using the word "genocide ,'' even though it has been universally applied by scholars and historians of the period. In fact, as you know better than most, the Ottoman Empire's campaign to annihilate the Armenian people was a prime example of what Raphael Lemkin was trying to describe when he coined the very term, ``genocide .''
I know that, as you consider your words this year, you will hear the same voices as in the past who will tell you to hold your tongue and speak in euphemisms. They will say that the time is not right, or that Turkey is too strategically important, or that we should not risk their ire over something that happened a century ago. Mr. President, regardless of what you say on April 24, there can be little doubt that Turkey will do exactly as it has always done in its relations with the United States, and that is whatever Turkey believes to be in its self-interest.
Many of our European allies and world leaders, including Pope Francis, have recognized the genocide , yet they have continued to work closely with Turkey because that has been in Turkey's interest. The same will be true after U.S. recognition of the genocide .
I dearly hope, as do millions of Armenians descended from genocide survivors around the world, that you take this final opportunity to call the Armenian genocide what it was--genocide ; to say that the Ottoman Empire committed this grotesque crime against the Armenians, but their campaign of extermination failed; and that, above all, we will never forget and we will never again be intimidated into silence. Let this be part of your legacy, and you will see future administrations follow your example.
When you spoke in Oslo more than 7 years ago, you closed your remarks by returning to the counsel of Dr. Martin Luther King and said: ``I refuse to accept the idea that the `isness' of man's present condition makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him.''
Mr. President, confronting painful, difficult but vital questions ``is'' who you are. Help us be the America we ``ought'' to be, that beacon of freedom and dignity that shines its light on the darkness of human history and exposes the vile crime of genocide .
Sincerely, Adam Schiff.
04/07/2016 - Rep. Schiff condemns Azerbaijani attacks against Nagorno Karabakh.
Read the statement here. 02/26/16 - Statement submitted for the Congressional Record on Sumgait - Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. On this day in 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. When the violence finally subsided, hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, women and young girls were raped, and victims were tortured and burned alive. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, leaving behind everything they had in their desperation.
The pogroms were not an accident. They were the culmination of years of vicious anti-Armenian propaganda, spread by the Azerbaijani authorities. The Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the violence. Unsurprisingly, it was not the end of the violence, and was followed by additional attacks, including the 1990 pogrom in Baku.
The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Time has not healed the wounds of those murdered in the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is celebrated in Azerbaijan, a situation most vividly exemplified by the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan, with an axe while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of Baku as a returning hero.
The assault on ethnic Armenian civilians in Sumgait helped touch off what would become a direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh. And today, Azerbaijan's dangerous behavior on the Line of Contact threatens peace and stability in the region. Artillery and sniper fire across the Line of Contact has become a fact of daily life for civilians in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, causing numerous casualties. I have urged the OSCE Minsk Group to deescalate the situation by ending a policy that equates unprovoked attacks by the Azerbaijan with the defensive responses of Karabakh and Armenian troops, and by pressuring Azerbaijan to accept the installation of technological monitoring devices along the border. The anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.
Mr. Speaker, this April we will mark the 101st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan's closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred yesterday or 28 years ago or 100 years ago. Today, let us pause to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in hope that history will not be repeated.
01/26/2016 - Rep. Schiff sends a letter to Secretary Kerry against a biased Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) resolution, backed by the Azerbaijani government, seeking to undermine the ongoing Nagorno Karabakh peace negotiations.
Read the letter here. 12/18/2015 - Just hours after U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Daniel Baers statement citing Turkey's valuable role in Nagorno Karabakh mediation efforts was released, Rep. Schiff expressed serious concerns about the top diplomats controversial assessment.
Read his statement. 12/16/15 - Rep. Schiff made a floor speech criticizing Turkey for not closing its border to ISIS. "Turkey has the power to close its border to ISIS but it doesn't have the will," he said.
You can watch the speech here. 05/20/15 - Remarks offered on the House Floor on the Armenian Genocide and LA2DC - Mr. Speaker, on April 24, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, runners and cyclists set out from Los Angeles on the Race for Recognition. I had the great pleasure of riding the first 28 miles of their journey with them. On May 7, they completed their 3,000-mile ride across the United States.
They undertook their ride to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide and genocides all around the world and to commemorate and remember the victims. It is my honor to read a portion of the petition that they carried with them across the Nation and to enter the entirety into the Congressional Record.
It provides:
On this 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, LA2DC organizing committee members wish to recognize and honor the contributions of the following people and organization:
The American people, for setting the standard in the world for philanthropy, social activism, human rights and prevention of crimes against humanity - in their first nationwide relief campaign from 1915 to 1930, Americans donated the equivalent of $2.7 billion to help save over 1 million Christian Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and other minorities during the first mass atrocity of the 20th century, when these minorities were targeted for extermination and deportation by the Ottoman Empire;
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who, as the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, alerted the United States Government and the rest of the world to the "destruction of the Armenian race";
The Near East Foundation, for providing relief to 1 million refugees and 132,000 orphan survivors of the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire;
The American Red Cross, for providing relief to survivors of genocides and mass atrocities for the past 100 years, starting with its first international assistance program in 1915 that provided relief to survivors of the Armenian genocide;
The Museum of Tolerance, for educating and enlightening more than 250,000 visitors per year since 1993 and challenging them to understand the Holocaust and genocides in both historic and contemporary contexts;
Raphael Lemkin, for inventing the term "genocide" to describe atrocities that target groups for annihilation, and for working tirelessly to gain approval of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by the United Nations in 1948;
USC's Shoah Foundation and its founder, Mr. Steven Spielberg, for collecting nearly 52,000 eyewitness testimonies of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and other genocide survivors;
Facing History and Ourselves, for educating over 10,000 teachers and, through them, hundreds of thousands of students on the history of prejudice and racism and the role they play in the events that lead to genocide;
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations's Children's Fund, for starting a vast relief operation in 1979 for the people of Cambodia, threatened by famine and disease in the aftermath of the Cambodian genocide, which claimed millions of lives;
United States Army Europe and United States Air Force Europe, for delivering humanitarian aid in 1995 and 1996 to the survivors of the Bosnian genocide, during which an estimate 100,000 Bosniaks were systematically targeted and killed;
Senator William Proxmire, for delivering a speech every day the U.S. Senate was in session in support of the ratification of Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. After 20 years and 3,211 speeches, the United States Senate ratified the convention on February 11, 1986;
President Ronald Reagan, for signing the Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987 into law;
The International Rescue Committee, for providing relief to Rwandan genocide survivors, when an estimated 800,000 mostly Tutsi minorities were massacred;
Not On Our Watch and George Clooney, for using his public profile to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur, where 300,000 civilians were targeted and murdered and 2 million displaced;
U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, for her groundbreaking book published in 2003, "A Problem from Hell," which recounts the history of genocide and offers a framework for policymakers that can help detect and prevent genocides;
The Armenian National Committee of America, for advocating for the recognition of the Armenian genocide and raising awareness of genocides as crimes against humanity.
Mr. Speaker, these riders carried this important message of truth and gratitude with them across our great Nation. It is an honor to do my small part to make sure they are heard.
On this 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, LA2DC organizing committee members wish to recognize and honor the contributions of the following people and organizations:
In the past 100 years, over 100 millions lives have been lost in genocides and mass atrocities;
During the same period, heroic American citizens, politicians, diplomats, faith based organizations, and non-government organizations have made it a part of their mission to raise awareness of genocides, help prevent genocides, and provide relief to survivors of genocides;
Some of these citizens, relief organizations, diplomats, and politicians put their lives and treasure at risk by working in conflict zones to alert the world of impending genocides and genocides in progress, rescue genocide survivors, and provide relief.
On this 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and through this petition, LA2DC organizing committee members wish to recognize and honor the contributions of the following people and organizations for their work in raising awareness of genocides, providing relief to genocide survivors, and working to prevent genocides;
The American People - for setting the standard in the world for philanthropy, social activism, human rights, justice, and prevention of crimes against humanity. In their first act of large scale, nationwide, organization and execution of a relief campaign, from 1915 to 1930, Americans donated more than $117 million - the equivalent of $2.7 billion in 2015 dollars - to relief organizations that saved over 1 million Christian Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and other minorities during the first mass atrocity of the 20th century, when these minorities were targeted for extermination and deportation by the Ottoman Empire. Over the past 100 years, Americans continue to be in the front lines of helping to prevent genocides, and providing relief and hope to survivors of atrocities.
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau - who as United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, alerted the United States government of "Destruction of the Armenian Race...." and called on Americans to get organized to help the survivors.
The Near East Foundation (formerly known as Near East Relief or NER) - for providing relief to 1 million refugees and 132,000 orphan survivors of the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923. During this period, NER raised the equivalent of $2.7 billion in 2015 dollars, and mobilized over 1,000 volunteers to help build 400 orphanages, food and clothing distribution centers, clinics and hospitals, and vocational training schools for the survivors.
The American Red Cross - for providing relief to survivors of genocides and mass atrocities for the past 100 years, starting with its first international assistance program in 1915 that provided relief to the survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - for leading national and international efforts to promote human dignity, confront hatred, and prevent the next genocide.
The Museum of Tolerance - for educating and enlightening more than 250,000 visitors per year since 1993, and challenging them to understand the Holocaust and genocides in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today.
Raphael Lemkin - for inventing the term "genocide" to describe the atrocities that target groups for annihilation, and for working tirelessly to gain approval of Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by United Nations in 1948.
University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation and its founder, Mr. Steven Spielberg - for painstakingly collecting nearly 52,000 eyewitness testimonies of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, and other genocide survivors, and using their first hand accounts to teach the world about the horrors of genocides and the importance of preventing them.
Facing History and Ourselves - for educating over ten thousand teachers in the United States and worldwide, and through them, hundreds of thousands of students, on the history of prejudice and racism, and the role they play in the events that lead to genocide. Since 1976, Facing History has been engaged in genocide prevention work by promoting global citizenship and heightened awareness of genocides.
The International Committee of The Red Cross and United Nations Children's Fund for starting a vast relief operation in 1979 for the people of Cambodia threatened by famine and disease in the aftermath of the Cambodian Genocide, which claimed millions of lives.
United State Army Europe and United States Air Force Europe - for delivering humanitarian aid in 1995 and 1996 to the survivors of the Bosnian Genocide, during which an estimated 100,000 Bosniaks were systematically targeted and killed.
Senator William Proxmire - for following through his commitment to deliver a speech every day the United States Senate was in session in support of the ratification of United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. After 20 years and 3,211 speeches, the United States Senate ratified the convention on February 11, 1986.
President Ronald Reagan - for signing the Genocide Implementation Act of 1987 into law, making genocide a Federal offense, and declaring, "This legislation still represents a strong and clear statement by the United States that it will punish acts of genocide with the force of law and the righteousness of justice."
The International Rescue Committee - for providing emergency supplies and restoring infrastructure following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where an estimated 800,000 mostly Tutsi minorities were massacred.
Not On Our Watch, and Messrs. George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman, and Jerry Weintraub for using their public profiles to bring attention to atrocities around the world, and raising awareness of the genocide in Darfur, where 300,000 civilians were targeted and murdered, and 2 million displaced.
United States Institute of Peace Genocide Prevention Task Force, and Co-Chairs Honorable Madeleine K. Albright and Honorable William S. Cohen - for developing a genocide prevention blueprint entitled, "Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers," which affirmed that genocides are preventable, and issued 34 specific actionable recommendations that United States can implement to help detect and prevent genocides.
Ambassador Samantha Power, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations - for her groundbreaking research documented in her book published in 2003, "A Problem from Hell," which recounts the history of genocide and offers a framework for policy makers that can help detect and prevent genocides.
Congressman Adam Schiff - for being the leading voice in the United States Congress advocating for recognition of past genocides as an important step towards detecting and preventing future genocides and atrocities.
The Armenian National Committee of America - for advocating for the recognition of the Armenian Genocides and raising awareness of genocides as crimes against humanity.
Countless other Americans and organizations who have made it their mission to help prevent the next genocide and promote peaceful resolution of conflicts.
05/20/15 - Statement submitted for the Congressional Record on the Armenian Genocide - Mr. Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of "race extermination."
The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories:
FROM ARSHALOUS DARBINYAN, AN ARMENIAN WOMAN, ON BEHALF OF HER FATHER, BABKEN VARDANI DARBINYAN, AND GRANDPARENTS, ARSHALOUS MARKARI DARBINYAN AND VARDAN SARKISI DARBINYAN
Arshalous Markari Darbinyan was happily married to Vardan Sarkisi Darbinyan. The Darbinyans were one of the wealthy families of Van. They were well respected community intellectual leaders. In the spring of 1915, at the time of deportation and forced relocation, Arshalous Darbinyan was an expectant mother. Andranik Zorava (a very close friend of the family) personally appointed one of his assistants to deliver a carriage to the Darbinyan residence. They left everything behind, the house and most of their belongings. In a chaotic rush they were forced to even bury their gold and most of the jewelry in their garden, and left behind the pharmacy they owned. The handmade carpets and rugs, and furniture were stuffed in the wine cellar, as they naively believed that once everything settled they would return home.
Unfortunately, when they were halfway there in the middle of the road the carriage flipped over. Arshalous was injured the most. She lost her baby. Also, she received several injuries on her face. Her husband, though in pain himself did his best to help cope with the situation. They suffered emotionally and physically, went through hardships, eyewitnessed the genocide and were lucky enough to survive. They were separated from their siblings, and the family was scattered around the world. Some of them ended up in Fresno, CA and the rest settled in Armenia.
04/15 - Member attended 166,000 person march in LA.
04/23/15 - Statement submitted for the Congressional Record on the Armenian Genocide - Mr. Speaker, I am proud to submit these additional names of Armenians who lost their lives in the Armenian Genocide from 1915 to 1923. We will never forget their names and their stories and we will continue to speak the truth in the face of denial.
You can read the names here. 04/22/15 - Remarks offered on the House floor in remembrance of the Armenian Genocide (Part 1 of 5; list of names were submitted for the Congressional Record) - Mr. Speaker, on April 24, we will mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide . 100 years ago, 1.5 million Armenians, along with the Syrians and Greeks, were slaughtered by the Ottoman Empire in the first genocide of the 20th century.
The sheer scale of genocide thwarts our capacity to comprehend it: 1.5 million Armenians killed, 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, 1 million Tutsis. The numbers become abstractions sanitized by their enormity. It is only when we consider each of those lives individually that the full horror comes into focus.
The victims of genocide are more than victims - they are human beings. The Armenians massacred from 1915 to 1923 were men, women, and children who were targeted in what was then an unprecedented campaign to wipe out an entire people.
It is our duty in the modern day to remember those lost and to bear witness that the campaign to destroy the Armenian people failed. We do so by speaking the truth, and we do so by speaking the names of those 1.5 million and by keeping both the way they lived and the way they died alive in our memory.
Earlier this month, I asked my thousands of Armenian constituents and millions of Armenians around the country and the world to submit the names and stories of their family members who were killed 100 years ago. The response was overwhelming. Thousands of people sent the names and stories of ancestors killed in the genocide --the names of infants and toddlers ripped from their mother's arms, the names of children and the elderly dying of exhaustion and starvation on a forced march to Deir ez-Zor, the names of women and girls raped and brutalized and killed, the names of clergy tortured and burned alive in their own churches, the names of men robbed of their possessions, of their homes, and of their lives.
Each victim has a name and a story. From Glendale, to Yerevan, to Jordan, and every corner of the world where Armenian diaspora lives, families sent me those names and those stories. It is my honor to read some of those names this hour, knowing that it would take more than 1,000 hours, more than 50 days, to read all of them.
Turkey may deny the genocide. Our administration may lack the courage to recognize the genocide. Our Congress may lack the courage to recognize the genocide. But no one can deny the humanity of its victims, and no one can deny our right to speak the truth.
One hundred years ago, 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Armenian genocide. These are their names:
Read the names here. 02/27/15 - Statement submitted for the Congressional Record on Sumait - Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. On this day in 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. When the violence finally subsided, hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, women and young girls were raped, and some victims were tortured and burned to death. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, leaving behind all but the clothes on their backs. The Sumgait Pogroms came in the wake of a pattern of anti-Armenian rallies throughout Azerbaijan, aided and encouraged by high ranking officials in the Azeri government, and touched off a wave of violence culminating in the 1990 Pogroms in Baku.
In a pattern all too familiar to the Armenian people, the Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the violence.
The Sumgait massacres led to wider reprisals against Azerbaijan's Armenian ethnic minority, resulting in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Time has not healed the wounds of those killed and hurt in the pogroms in Sumgait , Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is celebrated in Azeri society, a situation most vividly exemplified by the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan with an axe while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of Baku in a sickening welcome home. And as we speak, Azerbaijan continues its dangerous and provocative behavior along its border with Armenia and in Karabakh.
Mr. Speaker, this April we will mark the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan's closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred yesterday or 27 years ago or 100 years ago. Today, let us pause to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in hope that history will not be repeated.
01/12/15 - Statement submitted for the Congressional Record on the Armenian Sisters Academy - Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Armenian Sisters' Academy of Los Angeles upon its thirtieth anniversary.
The Armenian Sisters' Academy of Los Angeles (ASA), nestled in the foothill
