SUBMITTED BY: Karen Jallatyan
On March 4, 2010, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives approved HR 252, which would formally recognize the catastrophic mass killings of Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century as genocide. I firmly believe that the entire House of Representatives should set the record straight about one of the major humanitarian crises of our time and recognize the Armenian Genocide as well.
As senators, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton all recognized the Armenian Genocide before entering the executive branch as president, vice president, and secretary of state, respectively. In addition, 42 U.S. states, including California, and more than 20 nations have recognized the killings as a genocide, the latest being Sweden; its parliament passed an Armenian Genocide resolution on March 11. The Armenian Genocide is one of the most significant human rights crises of our times; it happened at the beginning of the 20th century and ushered the way for future genocides such as the Holocaust. Nowadays, the international community’s inability to prevent and punish perpetrators of genocide, for one thing, let the current genocide in Darfur unfold before our very eyes.
By formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide, our House of Representatives will make a significant move in holding to responsibility the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and in having greater chances of ending current and future ones.
Jallatyan is a fourth-year comparative literature and philosophy student.