Speech #900208013

I should like to review briefly some of the sufferings of this ancient people and why the sufferings of the Armenian people should always be kept green in our memory. Mr. Speaker. historic Armenia was overrun by the Turks early in the 16th century and from then on most of the Armenian people were subjected to the oppressive rule of their alien overlords. From about 1515 on they lived under Ottoman sultants and endured indescribable hardships. often compounded with deportations and massacres. They lived as something less than secondclass subjects in the Ottoman empire and were subjected to a long list of discriminations and injustices. They had no redress from all these wrongs. and they were helpless against their powerful oppressors.