Speech #990178413

This terrible chapter in the history of mankind reaped the lives of 1.5 million Armenians. I join my colleagues with a sense of sorrow and dismay as we reflect upon this tragedy that spanned a number of years and decimated the Armenian population in the Ottoman empire while leaving innumerable scars on the survivors of this tragedy. The Armenian people were not only deported and robbed of their lands and possessions but they were also subjected to coldblooded massacres and atrocities and brutal extermination. Males were separated from their families and massacred while remaining women. children and the elderly were forced to march across Asia Minor to the Syrian Desert. Of these marchers. thousands died in route of starvation. exposure. and disease.