I am pleased to join Armenians throughout the world in paying tribute to the victims and survivors of this evil crime. In response to the demand made by Armenians before World War I for tolerance and freedom. the Ottoman rulers launched a coordinated drive to round up and eliminate every Armenian man. woman and child. In 1915 the empire began deporting Armenians and from that time until the empire collapsed. an estimated. 1.5 million Armenianssome 60 percent of the Armenian populationwere killed or died of disease or exposure. Today. we honor those courageous individuals who were exterminated for no other reason than that their national heritage was considered alien by those who ruled the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian genocide reminds us that man possesses the pernicious quality of bigotry and the capacity to be cruel.
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