4/24/2014: Offered moving remarks at the ANCA Central California flag raising ceremony at the City Hall in in Fresno, CA commemorating the Armenian Genocide. Watch it here: http://youtu.be/m9SdbbnOLfg?t=42m52s

3/28/2014: Joins his fellow Congressional Armenian Caucus CoChairs in sending a letter to Pres. Obama condemning the attack on Kessab.
http://www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=2356

04/24/13 - Remarks delivered on the House Floor commemorating the Armenian Genocide - (Mr. VALADAO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the 98th anniversary of the initiation of the Armenian genocide in order to commemorate a moment in history inflicting wounds still fresh for many constituents in my congressional district.

From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire engaged in the systematic and organized deportation and extermination of over 2 million Armenians from their homeland. Although exact records were not kept, it is estimated that nearly 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children were killed and that many were permanently displaced or forced to flee. These horrific events have become known today as the Armenian genocide.

Many of those able to flee emigrated to the United States and settled in California. Today, their families continue to grow, thrive, and pass along their cultural heritage into their adopted communities. However, the sense of loss as a result of these horrific acts runs deep as many Armenian Americans personally know a friend or a family member who was unable to escape the genocide.

Despite the horrors of this time and broad international consensus that these events are rightly identified as ``genocide,'' the foreign policy of the United States refuses to acknowledge what so many already know to be true. Today, let us recognize and remember the 2 million Armenians whose lives were lost or forever changed by these tragic events.

03/04/13 - Statement submitted for the Congressional Record (jointly by Valadao and Nunes) marking the Sumgait-Baku massacres - 'Mr. Speaker, I rise today alongside my colleague, Representative DAVID VALADAO, to pay tribute to the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenians have suffered some of the worst savagery of recent history, from the massacre of more than a million people in the Armenian Genocide, to the cruel repression of Soviet rule, to Azerbaijan's war against Nagorno Karabakh and the ongoing siege of that region. Through these trials and tribulations, the Armenian people have paid a steep price for their freedom. The hero's welcome Azerbaijan recently afforded to Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani military officer who murdered a sleeping Armenian officer during a NATO-sponsored program in Hungary, is a stark reminder of the unrelenting hostility Armenians face today.

In this year, which marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of another anti-Armenian atrocity--the Sumgait pogroms--we pay homage to the Armenian people and particularly the people of Nagorno Karabakh, who bravely struggle to maintain their right to self-determination.'