Adam Schiff

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the chairman for yielding, and I want to compliment him on all his hard work in bringing the bill to this point after a long, tough challenge for many years. I rise in strong support, Madam Speaker, of H.R. 2701, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. This long overdue bill is the work of a committee that has been diligently pursuing, for years, our national security. H.R. 2701 addresses many vital areas and contains critical provisions that will assist us in combating the ever-evolving and emerging threats that our Nation faces, such as those emanating from the FATA in Pakistan, Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and Somalia. In this bill, we've sought to provide the necessary guidance and authorities for the critical intelligence and intelligence-related activities of our U.S. military and civilian personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, and provide important support to address emerging issues in Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere. I'm proud to say this bill also goes a long way toward bringing increased fiscal responsibility to the intelligence community. By reducing the cost overruns on our major systems acquisitions, the acquisitions provision of this bill will free up money to devote to our military and civilians combating threats and preserving our national security in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere. This is a strong piece of legislation. It will make our country safer. I urge my colleagues to pass the bill and let us have an intelligence authorization act this Congress while we have so many men and women in uniform and out of uniform fighting for our safety and security. I thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for your perseverance on this.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of legislation granting the Congressional Gold Medal to the Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, commonly known as the ``Go for Broke'' regiments, as well as veterans of the Military Intelligence Service, for their dedicated service to our Nation during World War II. It is an honor and a pleasure to offer humble thanks to this storied and inspirational group of men who answered their country's call in the face of tremendous adversity. Today, through final passage of a bill that will grant these regiments Congress' highest honor, we recognize those who have served our Nation at great risk, as well especially those who sacrificed all for our freedom. These men served the Nation at a pivotal moment in our history, displaying their heroism and courage on two fronts--abroad in the fight against an absolutist fascism and at home in the face of the intolerance of racial injustice. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor incited many doubts about the loyalty of Japanese Americans, these men who enlisted to protect our Nation were faced with segregated training conditions, family and friends relocated to internment camps, and repeated questions about their combat ability. It has been said many times about this group: to answer the call of duty requires exceptional courage and sacrifice, but to respond with a vigor and persistence unaffected by those who sought to malign and impede their every achievement reveals an incredible spirit and indomitable will. Six weeks after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. But even as xenophobia gripped the country, Japanese Americans were already lining up to join the war effort. In June of 1942, 1,432 members of the Hawaii Provisional Infantry Battalion were shipped from the Hawaiian Islands to Oakland, California, where the 100th Infantry Battalion was activated on June 12, 1942, and then were shipped to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for training. Thanks to the excellent training record of the 100th Infantry Battalion and petitions from prominent civilians and military leaders, President Roosevelt and the War Department reopened military service to Nisei volunteers. Eventually, their exemplary training record convinced the doubters, and the 100th Infantry Battalion was deployed to the Mediterranean where they entered combat in Italy in September of 1943. Due to their bravery and valor, members of the Battalion were honored with six awards of the Distinguished Service Cross in the first 8 weeks of combat. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team arrived in Italy in June 1944, where the 100th Infantry Battalion was formally integrated as a part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. As a unit, these regiments fought for the last 11 months of the war with selfless distinction in Italy, southern France, and Germany. Their performance in combat demonstrated their ability as remarkable soldiers; however, their poise, courage, and patriotism showed they were also remarkable men. They looked to support from their interned families, friends, and communities. And in turn, their service and commitment inspired their supporters back home to pursue aspirations of their own. Today, we also honor the Military Intelligence Service, known as MIS, who were made up of several thousand Japanese American soldiers who conducted highly classified intelligence operations that proved to be vital to U.S. military successes in the Pacific theater. These men fought alongside U.S. and Allied combat units where they translated radio transmissions and enemy documents, interrogated prisoners, and completed reconnaissance and covert intelligence missions. Often they were faced with peril from both enemy and friendly forces--unrecognized by allies and attacked by enemies. Their contributions continued during the Allied postwar occupation of Japan, and MIS linguistic skills and understanding of Japanese customs were invaluable to occupation forces as they assisted Japan in a peaceful transition to a new, democratic form of government. The ``Go for Broke'' regiments and the MIS were not the only servicemen of Asian Pacific Islander descent to serve in World War II. I also want to recognize those groups who faced similarly daunting conditions at home and abroad--the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 1399th Combat Engineer Company, the Women's Army Corps, the Filipino Scouts, and other heralded units. The ``Go for Broke,'' MIS, and other Japanese American men and women who have served deserve our continual rededication and appreciation. The debt we owe them is immeasurable. Their aggregate service record speaks for itself and drove me to introduce legislation last year--this legislation--which recognizes these regiments with the Nation's highest and most distinguished civilian award--the Congressional Gold Medal. My colleagues in the House of Representatives saluted the valor of these regiments by voting unanimously last year on my bill to honor them with a Gold Medal. Recently, the Senate passed the bill authored by Senator Barbara Boxer with the same unanimous approval. With this vote today, we can begin to truly express our appreciation for a group of men who left a segregated country to fight and defend an America with no guarantee that their own freedom would be defended in return. Their true heroism lies in how they fought for values of America, equality, justice, and opportunity, even when those values were not fully extended to them. We will continue to look towards their example to provide hope to our communities, to look past our differences, and to unite around our common bonds. Men and women are able to serve their country today without regard for ethnicity, race, or nationality because of what these men endured and accomplished. It's an honor to be part of this moment, Madam Speaker, and I urge you to join me in recognizing these courageous men by supporting the granting of a Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the U.S. Army's 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the First United Methodist Church of Temple City upon its centennial anniversary. The church was established in 1908, when about 30 people gathered to worship in an old wooden schoolhouse in the Santa Anita area of the San Gabriel Valley. In 1910, Rev. John Leonard Collins was appointed the new minister of the rapidly growing church, called the Mountain View Methodist Episcopal Church. As the church continued to grow, a new building was completed in 1911, with 14 different denominations worshipping in the facility. The church was moved to its current location in the Town of Temple, today Temple City, in June of 1925, and, with these new roots, the church continued to prosper under the new name, Temple Community Church, Methodist Episcopal. Much different from the schoolhouse, the newly dedicated church boasted Ionic columns and was a fine example of modern church architecture. In 1950, the new Sunday school building was completed, with the members performing much of the construction. At that time, the membership had grown to over 600 members and more space was needed, so in 1957, a new sanctuary was completed. In 1964, the mortgage was paid off and the church name was changed--this time to Temple City First Methodist Church. The original, white columned church was demolished in 1964 to make room for a new building housing a fellowship hall and church offices. In 1972, the church's name was changed to its present name, the First United Methodist Church of Temple City. Since its inception, the First United Methodist Church has been an inclusive and accepting church. In 1987, when the church was asked to share their facilities with a Korean United Methodist Church congregation, it gladly did so--and again when the church offered to share their facilities with a Chinese/English language church in the community. Under the leadership of Reverend David Palmer, First United Methodist Church of Temple City offers a variety of programs and ministries such as adult Sunday school, church choir ministry, stress management support groups, and the Crafty Ladies, a fellowship group that makes handcrafted items for those in need. The church has an impressive health ministry program, a cooperative effort between Methodist Hospital and local churches, which provides health services to congregants. This ministry includes a parish nurse, who provides education, information, health counseling, referrals, and training of volunteers. In addition, the church created a fitness program called Shape Up 2010 that includes walking, biking and low impact aerobics. I am proud to recognize the First United Methodist Church of Temple City for its 100 years of service to the people of the San Gabriel Valley, and I ask all Members to join me in congratulating the congregation upon this significant milestone.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Oneonta Congregational Church of South Pasadena upon its centennial anniversary. Oneonta Congregational Church was established in South Pasadena in 1910, when the Ladies Aid Society called upon Dr. I. Curtis Meserve, D.D. to be the first pastor of the developing church. The first services were held in the new high school and then in the parsonage bungalow, and the first Sunday school met in a garden. Founders Day was October 12, 1910, when officers were elected at the first official meeting. In 1911, land on Fletcher Avenue was acquired for the first church building, which was completed in 1925. The church was named after Henry E. Huntington's home town, the City of Oneonta, New York and it is a Native American name that means ``place of rest.'' Since its inception one hundred years ago, Oneonta Congregational church has only had twelve senior ministers serve the church. One of the most beloved ministers was Dr. Henry David Gray, the church's fifth senior minister. Under his leadership, land was purchased and the new sanctuary was constructed. Dedicated on October 12, 1950, with the first worship service held on October 15, the sanctuary, located on Garfield Avenue on the grounds of the former Boothe estate, was designed by award-winning architect Herbert Powell and was featured in Life Magazine for its beauty. Fellowship hall was completed in 1954, and the Christian education building was completed in 1972. During the ministry of Dr. Gray, membership grew from 703 to 2,157. He instituted workshops and interest groups, which included participation in worship services, program building, recreational activities and work in the church office, and organized the pilgrim fellowship for youth and led youth church members on significant journeys overseas. Other notable senior ministers include Dr. Charles Copenhaver, who hosted Sunday night radio broadcasts called ``Let's Talk,'' and Dr. Edwin Roberts, the longest-serving minister at twenty-one years, who was instrumental in increasing church members' participation in voluntary church responsibilities and sharing resources generously with those in need. The twelfth and current minister is Reverend Douglas Brandt, who has added a contemporary worship service and increased outreach to youth. In addition to Oneonta Congregational Church's own ministries, such as their music, adult, and youth ministries, congregants also volunteer for various organizations such as Door of Hope, Habitat for Humanity, Neighborhood Urban Family Center, Union Station Homeless Services, YMCA, Foothill Unity Center, Pan American Institute and the Ronald McDonald House. I consider it a privilege to recognize the Oneonta Congregational Church of South Pasadena, and I invite all Members to join me in congratulating the congregation upon one hundred years of service to the community.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 125th anniversary of the First United Methodist Church of Burbank, California. In 1883, when Burbank was a rural area with a population of a few scattered families, the community needed a place for worship, so a Sunday School was organized in the Providencia School House. One year later, on September 14, 1884, a church, located at Empire Avenue and Lincoln Street, was dedicated. After four years of use, the church was sold to a congregation member and a new church was erected in 1888, one year after the establishment of the City of Burbank. The church was established as the Providencia Church, and eventually merged with the First Methodist Episcopal Church, taking the latter's name. In 1919, construction began on a new church at Olive Avenue and Third Street, which was completed and dedicated in October of 1922. After World War II, the church membership grew to 1,000 parishioners, signaling the need for a new church building. In 1944, a building fund campaign began and property was purchased on Glenoaks Boulevard. In 1949, another fundraising campaign was launched to construct a new church on the Glenoaks property, and one year later, construction began on the new church, which became known as the First Methodist Church of Burbank. On May 25, 1952, the first official services were held in the First Methodist Church of Burbank and Consecration Sunday was held on September 14 later that year. The full construction plan was realized in 1956 with the completion of the Education Building. In 1968, when the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged, and the entire denomination changed its name, First Methodist Church of Burbank became known as the First United Methodist Church of Burbank. First United Methodist Church of Burbank offers a wide variety of programs and ministries to the Burbank community. The church hosts multiple Girl Scout troops, Boy Scout Troop #209, Cub Scout Pack #225, and offers opportunities for youth that include the Partners with the Parents Program and the Youth in Performing Arts Ministry. Other programs include the We Care Committee, which supports members of the congregation when they need assistance with meals, transportation and other services, as well as active chapters of the United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men organizations. In addition, members of the congregation volunteer on a regular basis at Burbank Temporary Aid Center and actively support our military by periodically sending care packages of personal items, telephone cards, books and other items to our troops overseas. I consider it a great privilege to recognize First United Methodist Church of Burbank and I invite all Members to join me in congratulating the congregation for 125 years of service to the community.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. This is one of those stories: (By Sarkis DerTavitian) My grandfather Nazareth Der Tavitian was born in Malatya, Turkey. His family consisted of his wife, three sons and two daughters. The eldest child, my aunt was born in 1900. My father followed as the eldest son; he was born in 1903. Next in line was the youngest of the daughters and she was born in 1907, followed by my uncle Kevork in 1910. The youngest son, Hampartsoum was born in 1913. My grandfather was a successful merchant in Malatya, Turkey. His wealth included large tobacco and opium fields, as well as the export of various goods such as leather, and dried fruits to Europe and America. He often traveled to Aleppo and Istanbul in order to conduct his business. At the brink of WWI in 1914, a Turkish friend of my grandfather informed him that the situation vas not looking good for Turkish-Armenians, he advised that he, along with his eldest son--my father make a temporary move to Istanbul, in hopes that the move would keep them safe until the situation had calmed within the provinces. My grandfather, uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the rest of the family during precarious times, conveyed these worries to a dear friend, who at the time was the military general of Malatya. The general assured him that as long as he remained in his position, no Turkish citizen or official could bring harm to him or his family. As the war progressed and the Young Turks solidified their power they ordered the replacement of all leading generals in the provinces, including Malatya--the aim being to break the power of the provisional leaders. My grandfather's dear friend was soon replaced. The alteration of leadership happened abruptly, therefore the opportunity to migrate was infeasible to all those who resided in Malatya. As soon as my grandfather's friend was replaced as the military general of Malatya, my grandfather was arrested and taken into custody. He had been imprisoned for two weeks when the chief of police gave him an ultimatum--abandon your religion or go under the sword. My grandfather refused to renounce his religion therefore he was murdered instantly. (This story was conveyed to my father by those who were jailed with my grandfather, they had converted in order to save their lives). Having been one of the more successful residents of Malatya, my grandfather had an apprentice whom he regarded both as a friend and apprentice. It was his way of giving back to the community, which until the Genocide had offered him and his family the utmost comfort and good. This friend was aware of the wealth that was kept in my grandfather's home. He came to see if assistance was needed, as he was not a Turkish-Armenian, but rather a Turk by heritage. To his surprise he found that my grandfather had already been taken into custody, and my grandmother was in hiding in the basement of the family home, she had escaped the mandatory deportation of Malatya. He assured them that he would be back once he can figure out how he could best be of service. Comforted by his statement, the family continued to stay in hiding as they eagerly awaited his return. Unfortunately, the loyalty of my grandfather's apprentice was not to be trusted. Upon leaving my father's family home, he went to the local police and informed them that my grandmother, along with the children were in hiding and had escaped the mandatory deportation. He provided the local police with the proper address and location, as well as the background information pertaining to my family. My grandmother had taken precautions and had told my father along with the eldest of the daughters where the family fortune was hidden. Having heard and seen the horrific experience of mass murder and deportation my grandmother was well aware that her family would not stay intact. In the likely chance that she would be taken into arrest, she had hoped that the large amount of family savings would either help the children sustain themselves or buy their safety. Soon thereafter, my grandmother was taken into exile. My father recalls her carrying a child as the police forced her out of the home; leaving the remaining children orphaned. My grandmother was never to be heard from again. The fate of my grandmother and her infant remains unknown. That was the last they saw or heard of their mother. The children were not sent into exile. They continued to hide in the basement of the family home. After my grandmother was taken away my grandfather's apprentice rushed to the house. Seeing the children, distraught, alone and in tears he assured them that he would find their mother and return her to safety. He left only to return in a couple of days. We concluded that the two-day absence would assure that no other family member was present to care for the children. Upon his return, he lied to the children and told them that he was able to find their mother that she was well, but in need of their help. He told the children that their mother asked that they gather the hidden family wealth, in order to bail her out of jail. Their father's apprentice would take care of the procedure. The eldest child my aunt, obliged in trust and showed my grandfather's apprentice where the wealth was hidden. The family wealth amounted to two barrels of 20,000 gold coins. The average yearly salary in Malatya at the time of the Armenian Genocide was two gold coins--the salary of 10,000 Turkish workers. As the children eagerly awaited their mother's return, my grandfather's apprentice enjoyed the sudden lavishness of wealth. Out of immense guilt, my aunt, the eldest child of Nazareth DerTavitian became severely ill. She died at the age of 15. A year after the murder of my grandfather and grandmother, the Turkish police came to the family home and took my father, his two brothers and his sister into government headquarters. They demanded that they convert to Islam or their fate would resemble that of their parents. My father, now being the eldest spoke for the entire family. He decided that the safety of his brothers and sister was of the utmost importance. They all converted to Islam and circumcised in accordance to Muslim tradition. They now held new identities, a new religion and new names. My father Kevork became Bakeer. They continued to live in Malatya in hopes of regaining the ownership of their father's land. They thought that that hopeful day had come when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk ratified a law in which whoever held the certificate to the land on which they resided could claim ownership of that land. My father was able to find the necessary certificates to the family home and took them to the provincial government of Malatya. To my father's devastation they would not allow him to have ownership of his land, because he himself was not Nazaret Der Tavitian. By statue, the lands could not be claimed by the living children of the deceased. Under this new law my father along with his siblings was left homeless. They would either live on the streets of Malatya or leave Turkey and start a new life in Aleppo, a safe haven for Armenian refugees. Their obstacles were many. In addition to having limited amount of resources, a law of conversion hindered the arduous road ahead. Converted persons were not allowed to leave Turkey; therefore they had to risk their physical safety by escaping out of the country. The family was separated in order to secure a safe departure. Riding on mules they individually reached Aleppo, around 1924. They were reunited in the refugee camps of Aleppo. In 1959, when I was barely 16 years old, the sister of a dear friend of my father's came to visit her brother from Malatya. I, along with my parents went to welcome her. There, I overheard her recall to my father that his father's three story home was still standing and had been converted into an orphanage. The elaborate Damascene hand woven wooden front door, which was the mark of the DerTavitian household, was still standing. This story, which I just relayed to you, is but one story in the devastating events of the Armenian genocide. The price of which we continue to pay. My father passed 34 years ago. He led an incredibly difficult life. The events of 1915 continued to haunt him. He was unable to surrender the thoughts, emotions and images that followed him throughout his life. I believe that if my father was alive today, his one desire would be to assure that no other peoples or nation suffer under the same fate that he had seen and experienced. I hope that this testimony will play a small, yet significant part of our most basic human quest, that of human rights. I thank you for taking on this endeavor. Through your actions, you assure that your character is great. For you not only honor and love justice, but rather, work towards its fulfillment.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 36th anniversary of the Turkish invasion and continuing occupation of the northern part of Cyprus. Since then, Cypriots have suffered from the division of their country and countless violations of their human rights by Turkish occupation forces. Even today, there is one Turkish soldier for every 2 Cypriots, making Cyprus one of the most heavily militarized places on Earth. It is important that we recognize not only the anniversary of the invasion, but also the island's ongoing problems at the hands of Turkey. On July 20, 1974, Turkish troops unlawfully occupied the northern part of Cyprus with a heavily-armed force that maintains control of 37 percent of Cyprus today. This has resulted in the usurpation and exploitation of Cypriot property, as well as the creation of hundreds of thousands of refugees. Additionally, an influx of Turkish immigrants has settled into the evicted Cypriots' homes, permanently altering the demographics of Cyprus and outnumbering native Cypriots by two to one. The UN has passed a multitude of resolutions calling for Turkish withdrawal from Cyprus, but they have been continually ignored. As Cyprus has always been a reliable partner of the United States, we must not forget the injustices suffered by its people. We must uphold the ideals of freedom, democracy, justice, human rights, and the international rule of law. By invading Cyprus, Turkey is in direct offense to all of these. As much as we would rather have no such grievance to recognize, it is important that we commemorate these injustices today. I urge my colleagues to join me in expressing the hope that Cyprus will be reunified soon and that peace will return to this beautiful and historic land in the eastern Mediterranean.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank Chairman Scott for his leadership on this issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1469, the Child Protection Improvements Act. I first introduced this legislation in 2007 with my colleague Mike Rogers of Michigan. The Child Protection Improvements Act would ensure that any mentoring organization or child-serving nonprofit will be able to obtain an affordable, fast, and accurate background check of a potential volunteer. About 25 years ago, I began as a volunteer with Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Big Brothers paired me with an extraordinary young man named David. I've always said that I've learned as much or more from David as he ever learned from me. The experience also helped me understand the huge amount of trust we put in volunteers at organizations all around the country. In the vast majority of cases, the trust is well placed; but, unfortunately, there are exceptions. For that reason, in 2003, Congress created the Child Safety Pilot Program to demonstrate the feasibility of allowing youth-serving nonprofits to access FBI background checks. The FBI maintains a database of criminal histories from every State in the Nation searchable by fingerprint. An FBI search is the gold standard background check, as it cannot be evaded by using a fake name and it will find convictions from every State. I believe the gold standard is what we should strive for when it comes to protecting children who are put in potentially a vulnerable situation. Since 2003, almost 90,000 background checks have been performed through the pilot. In 94 percent of the cases, the background check returns no serious criminal history. However, in 6 percent of the cases, a record of some kind was found, in some cases an extensive record which the applicant attempted to conceal. In 23 percent of those cases, the applicant gave a name other than the one in their criminal history. Applicants were found with convictions for everything from murder to child abuse to sexual assault; and frequently those convictions were from out of State so that only an FBI background check would have found them. We have demonstrated that background checks for nonprofits working with children can be conducted quickly, affordably, and accurately. Three times since 2003, Congress has acted to extend the pilot so that thousands of community organizations all over the country don't lose access to background checks for their volunteers. It's time to create a permanent system, one that will protect children while ensuring the civil rights and privacy of volunteers. Again, I want to thank Chairman Conyers, one of the original cosponsors; Chairman Scott, the chairman of the subcommittee; my colleague, Mike Rogers; and all other Members who have contributed to this effort and urge the Members to vote ``yes.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. This is one of those stories: Translated by Levon A. Saryan, Ph.D. In January of 2008, I traveled to Beirut to participate in the International Symposium on the Culture of Cilician Armenia, which was held under the sponsorship of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia. One morning, as I took my seat in the meeting hall, I turned around and introduced myself to two women scholars seated behind me, Dr. Verjine Svazlyan and her daughter Knarik Avagyan. Both were among the contingent of academics from Yerevan who were participating in the symposium. As we got to talking (the usual ``where are you from, where are your parents from'' questions that Armenians are so fond of), Dr. Svazlian removed from her briefcase a small book that she had written and opened it to a page containing several photographs. After searching for a moment, she pointed to one of the photos. It was a picture of my father, whose account was one of several hundred that Dr. Svazlian has been collecting over the years. Dr. Svazlyan transcribed my father's story in July 1999 at the Louvre Museum in Paris, when they were both attending the Sixth International Conference of Armenian Linguistics. My father's account was not contained in the small book she showed me, but it is recorded in Armenian in Dr. Svazlyan's major work, Hayots Tseghaspanutiun: Aganades Verabroghneri Vgayutiunneruh (Armenian Genocide: The Testimonies of Eyewitness Survivors), published in Yerevan by the Republic of Armenia National Academy of Sciences in 2000. After returning to Yerevan, Knarik kindly sent me a scan of the relevant pages from this book, enabling me to prepare this translation. The village of Piran is located on the southern slopes of the Taurus mountain range, approximately midway between the towns of Palu (to the north) and Diarbekir (to the south). Kharpert is to the west, and Sassoun is to the east. Piran was a relatively small village, with probably less than 1,000 inhabitants. It does not appear on most maps. As we will see, it did not escape the fate of other Armenian towns and villages in the region. In 1915, through murder and deportation, Piran was nearly emptied of its Armenian inhabitants. I present here an English translation of my father's account as transcribed by Prof. Svazlyan. Some additions and clarifications are noted in brackets. I have also made a few minor factual adjustments based on our personal family knowledge. * * * * * For the most part, the inhabitants of our village were Kurds; there were a few Turks, and the rest were Armenians. Our village was not far from the source of the Tigris River. The Tigris begins at Dzovk Lake; Dzovk is where Nerses Shnorhali was born. Dzovk was one and one-half days away from us. In the spring, the Tigris River flowed so swiftly that it would carry trees with their roots in its current. I have seen how, if the trees became tangled in the river, some swimmers would enter the water and straighten the trunks so that the water could flow unimpeded. Four or five miles from Piran, our village, there was a red rock outcropping, where wild bees made honey which would collect in a hole [in the rock]. Our villagers would go [to this place] with pans to collect the honey, fill their pans, and take it home. I was born in 1911. My father's name was Krikor, my uncle's name was Garo, my grandfather, Sarkis. Three months before the Great Catastrophe, I awoke to find myself on my grandmother's back. My father had been taken in handcuffs to the police house. The last time I saw my father he was tied with handcuffs. All of the Armenian men in the village were taken from the prison and driven to the northeast. Later, the Kurds told us that all of them had been killed. It was a hot day in the month of July, 1915. The Kurds had come; they were sitting in the shade of a tree watching the proceedings. The command for deportation had arrived and everywhere there was confusion. The Turkish gendarmes were saying to each other: ``Firman geldi, bir giavourn kafa kalmaiachak.'' (Turkish for ``an official command has arrived, not one infidel (Armenian) head shall remain.'') Although at that time I was only 4 years old, I remember it well. I did not want to go into exile. Our family was put onto the road before noon. They were taking the road toward the nearby Kurdish village of Kalbin, the one we used when taking our herds to graze. The flocks went, the dust rose and our family went. My mother, my older sister Haygouhi (seven years old), my younger sister Esther (2 years old), and my four-month old brother Haygaz. My little sister and my brother became tired on the road to exile, and began to cry. The gendarme [accompanying the caravan] took Esther and Haygaz and threw them into the Tigris River. My mother fled and my older sister Haygouhi was kidnapped. My father's brother's son was small; they killed his mother with a dagger, and they also killed little Ghevont since his mother would not obey the soldiers. Hermig, one of our neighbors, had escaped from the caravan. She returned to the village and told us what had happened to them. I did not go with them. Because I sensed the coming danger I went and hid in our stable. A military policeman came, found me and took hold of me, and placed me on a donkey. I did not want this, and started to cry. I got down from the donkey, and again went and hid myself in the stable. Once more, the military police came and found me, and again they placed me on the donkey. Again I let myself down, and this time I went to the tree where the Kurds were sitting, and mixed with them. They belonged to the Zaza tribe and spoke the Kurmanji dialect; they were our friends and neighbors. Imagine, just at that moment my grandmother came from behind me. She was a folk doctor; she would dry various types of flowers and use them to treat eye diseases, and cure people. People would compensate her for her services with tomatoes, peppers, madzoun (yogurt), and so forth. [Because of this skill, she was allowed to remain in the village.] I had a 15-year-old uncle [whose name was Kaloust], who was taken all day for interrogation. It was he who shoed all the horses in our village. Consequently, the Turks needed a craftsman like him in the village. For that reason they allowed him to remain in the village, and I stayed with him. The next year we were Islamized, we became Zaza and Kurmanji, but in the house we spoke Armenian. A mullah came, and my name became Sefer. I, my uncle, and Hovhannes (whose name became Haso) were circumcised. I remember that there was a terrible pain. That part of my body felt like it was on fire. They took that part of my body and dried it in the sun, keeping it as evidence. We stayed with the Kurds for four years, until 1919. In those years we would travel by donkey north, south, east, and west, tinning copper pots. My job was to [stoke the fire by] working the bellows. Hovhannes-Haso worked with us. He would pulverize rocks, fill them in the copper pots and mix them with his foot, cleaning the inside of the pot so that the tin would adhere. My uncle would collect old nails which we would warm in a fire until they became soft, and make new nails. One day, in this fashion, we made 1,500 nails. Southeast of our village were Kurdish villages named Kalbin and Shekhmalan. I have been to those villages. There was an Islamized Armenian married woman who lived there. I was there one night. I heard some whispering that the Islamized Armenians, because they had been reduced to starvation, had decided to enter the wheat fields at nighttime and steal grain. The grain belonged to them, they had cultivated the wheat in those fields, but the Kurds had taken it. The following day it became apparent that they had taken the grain, since one of their bags had a hole in it and the grain, falling out of the bag, had left a trail. East of our village was the Kurdish village of Deiran, where the Kurds lived in conical stables. I went, and saw that the wheat was ripe in the fields around us as we walked to Deiran village. The weather was so hot that the fields behind us ignited and started to burn, but we were not harmed. The Kurds were the losers, since for them this was ill-gotten gain. The war was over by 1919. My father's brother Simon had enlisted as a volunteer [gamavor in Armenian] in the Armenian legion of the French Army. The young men trained in Cyprus, and then went to Adana and fought. [Simon came to our village and found that I had survived. He wanted to take me to America. First,] we came to Dikranagert [Diarbekir], then Mardin, where there was a railway. There was a fortress on a very high hill. The railroad was down below, in a valley. The train only came once a week, so we went to the station a day early and slept there, waiting for the train. Many Armenians were going to Aleppo and we, with them, were also going to Aleppo. There was nothing to eat, and I was ill with a strong fever. My Uncle Simon somehow got me into the railway wagon, so that I could reach Aleppo quickly. From one side the French soldiers were pulling me onto the train, while on the other side the Turkish soldiers were trying to pull me off. Simon was unable to come with me, but he gave me his volunteer's cap. This was the Berlin-Baghdad railway that brought us to Aleppo. When I reached Aleppo, I put the cap on my head, and the Armenian volunteers found me and took [care of] me. We had a relative named Baghdadian, who had reached Aleppo with his young son, but a Turk had struck him in the head and blinded him. He took me in and kept me until my uncle arrived the following week. Since my uncle was a volunteer, he could travel for free. First he returned to America, and in 1921 he sent me money and I also came to America. I became a chemist. Later, I went to Befit to study Armenian at the Jemaran [College Armenien]. There, my teachers were Levon Shant, Nigol Aghbalian, and others. We learned to sing in Gananchian's chorus. There I met Armine [Manoukian, my future wife]. Later, she came to America. Now we have two sons and two daughters. One son is a physician and the other is a biochemist. Our daughters work in the financial industry. We have eight grandchildren. The Turks reduced our numbers, but we increased them. I am also a writer and I study the relationship of Armenian to other sister Indo-European languages. I have published a book on this topic [Language Connections: Kinship of Armenian with Sister Indo-European Languages].

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. This is one of those stories: (Submitted by Nareg Krumian, the grandson of Haroutioun Andonian) ``Haroutioun Andonian was born in Gurun, Turkey in 1909 and grew up with his father, mother, grandmother and younger sister. At the age of 6, his father and mother were separated from him, his sister and his grandmother. His father was arrested by Turkish soldiers and his mother was taken away. He still remembers a line of people bound to each other at their wrists and being marched away from his village. Among them was Haroutioun's father, whom he never saw afterwards. He never saw his mother again either. He was rounded up with his sister, grandmother and other neighbors by another group of soldiers and taken away to various cities and villages. By the time they reached Aintab (presently called Gaziantep), his sister and grandmother were too weak from hunger and the forced marches that they lost their lives as well. ``In Aintab, various Armenian, American and European aid workers tried to contain the situation of children left without family. The orphans were disbursed to various Armenian and Turkish homes throughout the villages of Aintab. Haroutioun remembers the name of Balaban Khoja, a teacher, who was instrumental in placing the orphans with families who wanted children. After going through several homes, Haroutioun lived with a lady who would later become his mother-in-law. ``Around the time he was 10 years old, American and Danish missionaries began taking the children to orphanages in Lebanon and the U.S. Haroutioun was sent to Jbeil, a city in northern Lebanon, where he stayed until around 1925 when he was sent to France through the aid of the American charity Near East Relief. For a few years, he worked on a farm and later went to Paris to work at the Renault factory where he was responsible for chroming metal components. ``In the early 1930s, Haroutioun found out that the lady who had cared for him last as a child in Aintab had herself been forced to evacuate her village with her family and was living in Aleppo, Syria. He went to Syria, began working in various fields such as trading in cloth and yarn, and managing Turkish baths that were still prevalent during that period. He also married his host mother's daughter, Marie, with whom he had one daughter, Alice. ``Haroutioun and Marie left Syria for the last time in 1987 and came to Los Angeles to join their daughter and her family. In 2002, he became a U.S. citizen and shared a letter with the judge presiding over the procedure that he had kept for over 70 years. The letter was from the Near East Relief thanking Haroutioun for paying back funds he had borrowed during his journey to France. Though not obligated to do so, Haroutioun had felt that re-paying into the fund would allow other unfortunate people with the opportunity to rebuild their lives. To this day, he maintains that the government of Turkey and its soldiers took away his ability to know what it was to have a family but that today, living in the United Stated at the age of 101 amid his two grandchildren and six great grandchildren, he has become a king who has everything.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below are a few of those stories: Varsenik Demirjian, a Genocide survivor, eventually made her way to Yerevan, Armenia, where she lived in a comfortable, two-story home with her two sons, their wives and six grandchildren. According to her family, she did not discuss what transpired during the genocide for most of her life. However, in her final years, she found the strength and will to tell her children and grandchildren what happened. Edward Djrbashian, her great grandson, translated her experiences that took place in Adabazar, Turkey, in 1915: ``I had no idea what the future had in store for me. Yet, my father and mother had heard of what happened to the Armenians in neighboring villages, so they asked our Arabic neighbors to take care of me, just in case something happened. On April 24 of 1915, when I was only five years old, the bloodthirsty Turks invaded our village. Just as my parents predicted, my mother quickly told me to run to the closet and to stay there. ``Panic-stricken, I curled up in the dark closet and in a blink of an eye I heard loud screaming and a loud bang! Out of fear, I dropped the bag of gold coins my mother had given me. The clinking sound alerted the soldier because I heard the clicking of his boots on the hardwood floor coming closer and closer. Thankfully, as he was approaching the closet, one of his superiors called him down and he left the house without finding me. As my eyes closed, I slowly fell asleep. ``After a very long time it seemed, I heard a voice calling, `Varsenik, Varsenik!' ``The familiar voice comforted me and gave me courage to rush out of the closet. ``My heart sunk when I saw the tears in Hassan's and his wife's eyes. `` `I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your parents have been murdered,' '' Hassan told me. ``Since that day, my life had never been the same. I lived with Hassan and his wife for a few months. They gave me my own room and fed me well. I didn't mind living with them, but the thought of my parents being dead hurt me greatly. One morning as my eyes just opened, Hassan came running to my room and told me to wear my clothes and quickly hide in the closet. As I did what he said, I heard a knock on the door. It was an American's voice. As I closed the closet door, flashbacks of my mother screaming went through my head. It seemed like only a few moments had passed by, and before I knew it, the closet door swung open. There were two men. One seemed to be an American, and the other was an Armenian. I couldn't resist not answering the questions the Armenian man asked me, and eventually he nicely asked me to pack my belongings because he was going to take me to a Red Cross orphanage in Jerusalem. That was the last time I saw Hassan. ``In the orphanage, I learned to read and write English and Armenian, cook and knit. I made a couple of friends, but none were ever close to me. ``After living in the orphanage for twelve years, my teacher gave me a reason to smile again. She called me up and said, `You are nearing the age of 18 and I have very good news for you, Varsenik. Your uncle from Greece has somehow contacted our Orphanage and we have agreed to let you decide if you want to leave.' ``Of course, I was grateful for receiving news that would spark a ray of hope in my melancholic life. ``The remaining weeks at the Red Cross orphanage were very delightful, because I knew that in a week or so I would be in a beautiful country, Greece, with people I can call family. As the time approached for me to leave, I thanked everyone in the orphanage house and the teachers for all they had done for me. ``What I found in Athens was my future husband, Hakop, whom I married a few years later. We had three children and our family survived during the harsh times of the WWII era, when the Nazis occupied Greece. Finally after the war, we decided that it is time to return to our real homeland, Armenia. In 1947, we boarded another ship which took us to Yerevan. ``I knew that this was my very last destination.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories: Nora Hovsepian, the granddaughter of Vergine Djihanian, a Genocide survivor, expressed a story on her grandmother's behalf: ``Vergine Djihanian was an Armenian girl who lived with her parents and eight brothers and sisters in the city of Erzinga, Turkey. ``In the summer of 1915, Vergine witnessed her father and uncle being beaten and axed to death in front of her eyes by Turkish gendarmes. Her mother and aunt frantically gathered up all of their children, took them to the nearby banks of the Euphrates River, said their prayers, and holding hands together at the river's edge, threw themselves into the raging waters, choosing to die by their own hands rather than falling victim to the barbarity of the Turkish soldiers surrounding them. ``All of them drowned, except 9-year-old Vergine, who clung to the branch of a weeping willow tree overhanging the river, instinctively wanting to survive. Vergine was too young to understand why her family was dying around her. She was too young to understand the fear of being raped or enslaved by Turkish soldiers, but she was old enough to know that if she could just hold on a little longer to the hanging branch, then maybe she could be saved. She hung on for what seemed an eternity. However, she felt hopeful again when a compassionate Kurdish family came to the river's edge, saw her desperation, and rescued her. She was the only one who survived the ordeal, saving her from an agonizing death. ``She worked as a maid in the house of her rescuers for a few years. Then American missionaries had come to the region trying to find lost souls. Vergine was taken to an American orphanage, and at the age of 14, she was reunited with her two older brothers who had been in America for several years and who were frantically trying to find any surviving members of their large family. ``Vergine came to New York on a ship through Ellis Island in 1921 and built her life there. She met and married Missak Kalebdjian, another survivor of the Armenian massacres, in Adana in 1909, and she never told her only son or anyone else about the unspeakable horrors she had witnessed. ``Vergine Djihanian Kalebdjian was my grandmother. She told me her story when I was 10 years old, sitting me down with a serious and sad look, preparing me for what I was about to hear. As I listened, I could not even fathom what she had gone through at the same age, and until now, and for the rest of my life, I will never forget her story. ``Nearly 60 years after her nightmare, the memory remained fresh within my grandmother's mind. She wept uncontrollably as she told me the story of her family's fate. I tried to comfort her, telling her I did not want her to cry, but she wanted to get it out, as it had been festering inside her for all those years. She could not bring herself to tell my father, her only son, about her childhood as he was growing up, because she wanted to spare him the pain she had endured. She wanted to give him a better life and happy memories. ``My grandmother said that she had to pass down the legacy of what happened to her and her family to my generation, so that we could tell the world and seek justice for the unspeakable crime against our people. ``I will forever cherish her words and her memory.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories: Submitted by Katia Kusherian, Whose Mother Is 95 Years Old and Also Contributed by Providing Details Included in the Following Stories ``Here are some of the many stories I have heard from my parents. ``My first story: In 1915, my father's parents were killed, and my father, Hovannes, became an orphan. My father was from Tigranakert. A Turkish woman adopted him and he lived in that family. He had to go to the fields every morning to work. His stepmother's older son rode a horse and my father always had to run to keep up with the horse. And every morning the young Turkish boy repeated to my father asking: `What are you going to do geavour, if I kill you.' My father did not answer. Eventually my father's stepmother told my father that one day her son will kill him for sure. She finds a way to send my father to Syria. ``This is how my father stayed alive. When we talk about kind Turks, I think we should not forget that the main purpose was to assimilate the orphans, so it was half kindness. ``My second story and my third story are about my grandmother--mother's mother--Armaveni. She was born in Ichmee (a village) and got married to Serovbe Beylerian and moved to Ortagyoukh. Both villages are in Keyvee, which was a small county near Adabazar near Istanbul. The county of Keyvee had five villages--Ichmee, Ortagyoukh, Knjelar, Kurdpelenk and Partizak. ``My second story: During the deportation from their village, Ichmee, near the city of Adabazar, the Turks forced my grandmother's father, Voskan, to do his natural needs--of course there was no toilet--in front of his children and daughters-in-law to humiliate him, and before he finished, they pushed and kicked him in his back. Later on they were killed and only some of the children, including my grandmother, escaped. ``My third story: Gayanee, the survivor in this story, was from Ortagyoukh. My grandmother Armaveni and Gayanee met in Romania after the Genocide. A group of Armenians were tied up with ropes and shot. Among them, one young girl named Gayanee survived. After the shooting, at night, long-bearded men with curved swords--yataghans--came to check if anyone from that group was still alive. They were slashing the bodies with their swords to ensure no one would stay alive. Gayanee managed to crawl under the dead bodies and covered herself with them. Fortunately, they did not notice her. After the Turks left, she crawled out and ran. She had no food or water. Even though Gayanee escaped and remained alive, she was spiritually handicapped and later died at a young age after developing TB. ``I never had grandparents from my father's side. They were all killed by Turks. I hope their souls will rest in peace.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories: Submitted by Harry Boghossian, an Armenian Genocide Survivor Descendant Who Resides in San Diego, California ``It is an honor to have this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to you for documenting my families' genocide story. ``My father, Hagop Boghossian (born Hagop Asharjian), was a remarkable man. He was born on May 20, 1910, in the city of Dikranagerd, present day Diyarbakir, Turkey. His parents, Boghos, and Ani, had three sons and three daughters: Yeznig, Hagop, Antranig, Dickranouhi, Mena, and Vartouhi. ``My father always reminded me what happened to his family in the days following April 24, 1915. He said to me: 'During the massacre, the Turkish government took away my innocent, beloved father and my older brother, and they never returned home. They were murdered by the Turkish government. My younger brother, Antranig, died of cold and hunger, and there was no one around to bury him. My second oldest sister, Mena, was married to a Turkish man by force, and she died of hunger and cold, as well. All our luxury belongings: home, money, jewelry, clothing and our historic homeland were taken away by the Turks.' ``The surviving members of his family ended up in a refugee camp and his mother worked hard for several years just so they could stay alive. My father's mother was a beautiful woman, and had offers to marry several Turkish and Armenian men, but she refused to remarry. ``In 1922, my father's uncle, Anto, on his mother's side, fortunately came from Israel, managed to find them, and helped them to obtain their passports to immigrate to Israel. On May 7, 1945, my parents, Hagop and Mary, got married. They had three sons and one daughter: Paul, Peter, Harry and Ani. In 1949 my father's mother Ani, passed away. ``In May 1966, my family moved to Los Angeles, California. ``My father's two older sisters passed away. Dikranouhi, in 1968 and Vartouhi, in 1985. He sometimes cries when he remembers his lost family. I watched him cry and realized my Dad's heart was hurting inside, and that he had experienced a great deal of sadness, tragedy, depression, and loneliness. ``My father passed away on May 9, 1996. He always loved his family and this country with all his heart. He was married over 50 years and had six grandchildren. ``My maternal grandparents were also survivors of the Armenian Genocide. During the massacre the Turks were going to take away my grandfather, Toros Sivalzlian, to a death march in the desert. Fortunately he was hidden behind the door and the Turks did not see him, so they left. God saved him and he escaped. He was 20 years old at that time and lost his family. My grandmother Santoukht's brother was included with all people that were marching, during the deportation by the Turks. She started running after him while he was being marched away. She didn't catch up to him. And never saw him again. At the age of 10, she lost her parents/family and was an orphan, and did not know or have any contact information if her family were dead or alive. My grandparents met and were married in Greece, had seven children, 24 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. They were marred over 63 years and lived over 90 years. ``On April 29, 2009, I met with Senator Wyland and his staff at the state capitol to testify in front of the chair members in favor of the Genocide Awareness Act SB234. My testimony was as follows: `` `One of the greatest atrocities during the First World War was the Armenian Genocide. The 1.5 million Armenians that vanished from this planet that were annihilated by the genocide deserve to be recognized throughout history along with all Genocides. My father was an eyewitness to the massacre. He was exposed to a terrible tragedy. It changed his entire life. He saw bodies buried below the ground except their head exposed to the sun. He saw men, women, and children lying on the ground dead. Our former U.S. Ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, documented the Armenian Genocide. He put into print the experience he witnessed of the Turkish government's immoral tactics to wipe out the Armenian people, and rob the people of their land and dignity. Mr. Ambassador had the willingness to record the atrocities as a credible, U.S. government document, readily available in the U.S. archives. This document serves as a legitimate itemization of the Genocide. In so doing, he kept the remembrance of the Armenian Genocide alive in the face of today's Turkish government plot to cover up the truth and deny that the Genocide ever existed. We must never live in the denial of the truth. I urge the Senate Education Committee to support and vote for the Genocide Awareness Act SB 234 so the genocide is never repeated.' '' ``I would like to thank you Congressman Adam Schiff, for your generous support for supporting the Armenian Genocide.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories: (Submitted by Kay Mouradian, EdD, Professor Emerita Education, Los Angeles Community Colleges, daughter of Flora Munushian Mouradian) ``As a child growing up in Boston, my mother, Flora, would tell me stories of her childhood in Turkey. `Hunger is a pain that never sleeps,' she said recalling the trauma she experienced in 1915, when at age 14 she and her immediate family of nine were forced to leave their home in Hadjin, Turkey. She told me of the hardships during the forced march . . . no food or water, the terrifying fear as Turkish soldiers tried to abduct her and her 16-year-old sister, helplessly watching soldiers take away her 18-year-old brother, no sanitation at the outdoor camps, the smell of disease and death in those camps, one of which cramped 150,000 emaciated Armenians before they were allowed to continue on, witnessing the already dead lining the roads, painfully watching her father bury her 70-year-old grandmother, becoming hopelessly traumatized as her father leaves her and her sister in Aleppo, Syria. Can you imagine the painstaking decision made by loving parents to leave vulnerable teenage daughters behind in a strange, huge Arabic city hoping their chance for survival would be greater? ``No longer having the protection of her father and not knowing a word of Arabic, Flora's fear of becoming an orphan explodes and is compounded when working as a `slave' in a Syrian home, Flora is sold to a wealthy Turk. When her sister learns Flora is in the harem, she stealthily sneaks into the harem and steals Flora to safety. Both girls were the only ones from the family to survive. ``In 1984, at the age of 83, my mother, Flora, having outlived her husband and two of her four children, was hospitalized. She was diagnosed as terminally ill with congestive heart failure and could not feed herself because she suffered from severe hand tremors. Confused, she did not recognize people she once knew. The day I took her to emergency she did not know who I was. `` `Let her spend her last few days at home,' her doctor said. ``With a heavy heart, I brought her home. Her final moments were near. I did not expect her to survive the night. But I was wrong. As time passed, not only did my mother rebound but she literally recovered! Her hands quieted and no longer trembled and more amazingly, her mind was again clear and alert as if her brain cells had been renewed. I watched as she developed new relationships with friends that only recently she hadn't recognized. The most miraculous and wonderful part of all of this was that my mother had become more loving. ``Until her heart attack, her life had been colored by the Armenian tragedy. She was filled with anger and self-pity, and dwelt on the horrors of the past. She often talked about her family who had perished at the hands of the Turks. Now, incredibly, that dark shadow was gone. It was as though something happened inside Flora's heart, something beyond my ability to understand. ``My mother had three more episodes in the next five years. Each time I was told she would not survive without the help of a respirator and each time we, the family, refused, feeling she needed to move on if it was her time. But my mother's fourth encounter with death really stunned me. In 1988, I went to Aleppo, Syria, to search for the family that gave my mother refuge and found the one remaining descendant. The next day I received a call from home. Mom had another attack, her fourth. I prepared myself for the worst and flew home. ``When I saw Mom in the hospital, she tried to smile but was too weak. `I don't know why I didn't die,' she said, her voice barely audible. ``I leaned close and gently asked, `Mom, do you think you will die now?' `` `It doesn't look like it,' she said, her voice cracking and her face reflecting her own disbelief. Somehow, she knew. Two days later, when I entered cardiac care I was astonished to see my mother sitting up in bed, unattended. A day earlier she couldn't even turn her head without help. When she saw me she shouted something in Turkish, a language she hadn't spoken in more than 50 years! ``I was startled. She was filled with energy and animated. What was she shouting in Turkish? `Mom, I don't understand you,' I said, trying to calm her. `Speak to me in English. Repeat everything I say.' ``I went through the entire English alphabet. She repeated each letter dutifully, as if she were in school following a teacher's instructions. We counted numbers and she repeated those in English. But then she started to shout in Turkish again. An occasional English or Armenian word was in the mix. `They took my education! They took my family! Do you know what it was like? I went crazy!' She looked straight into my eyes and said loud and clear in English, `The bastards!'--a word not in my old-fashioned mother's vocabulary. I couldn't hold back a laugh. ``Throughout this wild scenario, even when she was shouting in Turkish, she was joyful. 'Mom, are you happy?' I asked trying to understand this phenomenon. `` `Yes!' she said emphatically. `` `Why?' I questioned. `` `Because I'm awake!' she said with authority. ``Had she been given an opportunity to release her own intense hatred of the Turks? Was that hatred released with the strong expulsion of her anger when she shouted, `The bastards!' I'll never know for sure, but I can state for a fact that my mother was so filled with love after this fourth brush with death she couldn't harbor hatred, even toward the Turks. Love poured out of her heart, like a flower releasing its perfume. Everyone around her felt it. ``Escaping death time and time again, Flora became more alert and loving each time. Her amazing transformation during those last five years of her life taught me a lifetime of understanding. The greatest of these is the fact that when negative matrixes like hatred and anger no longer rule the heart, streams of fragrant love pour out of every cell in the body. She shined like a thousand suns.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories: Mary Samanlian Poladian's grandmother, Mary Hasesian, married Artin (Haroutyoun) Samanlian when she was 16 years old--it was Artin's second marriage and Mary's first marriage. They were from the city of Marash. From Mary Samanlian Poladian on behalf of her grandmother, grandfather and ancestors: ``My grandfather's first wife had died and left behind an 8-year-old daughter named Siranoush, and a 7-year-old son named Panos. After a year of marriage, my grandmother was already expecting a child. ``One evening, when the French army left the city, the Turkish army armed with knives and axes attacked the city before sunrise. The Armenian people were still asleep. My grandfather and grandmother were awakened by the noises and realized that they should run to safety. They immediately took the children and got out their home to go to the nearby church. On their way, the Turkish soldiers fired at them from far away. Panos cried in pain when one of the bullets struck his leg. His father carried him, and they all continued walking towards the church. Not long after, my grandmother began to feel pain, and she knew she was ready to deliver her baby. ``When they reached the church, my grandmother gave birth to a baby girl who she named Zarouhi. The church was full of people, and sadly my grandmother and grandfather lost each other. During this time, she also found out that Lutfia and Gulen, two of the nine sisters, had been burned alive in the furnace with their husbands and children. With no sign of her husband, she carried her baby and asked her husband's son and daughter to hold her skirt as they walked out of the church with the rest of the people. ``Now, they had to walk from Marash to Aleppo (Syria). The weather was cold and it began to snow. They ate snow when they felt hungry. It was a long way and they were exhausted. Panos's pain was not subsiding as well. Eventually, they all made it to Aleppo, where they joined other Armenian refugees. An Armenian priest sent them, as well as three other Armenian women and their children, to Damascus by train. In Damascus, they lived together in an old house. ``One day, some Armenians and Americans came and took the children to the orphanage. My grandmother was devastated. As time passed by, good news sparked a ray of hope in her life. Three years later, there was a knock on her door, and guess who it was? My grandmother fell on the ground unconscious when she saw her husband standing in front of the home. After she absorbed what had happen, he told her that he had been looking for them for a long time, and was told by some relatives that they had heard of them coming to Aleppo. He immediately brought back his children from the orphanage, and they went to Beirut where my father Georgie was born. Years later, they were also blessed with two daughters. ``They named their two daughters Lutfia and Gulen in memory of my grandmother's sisters who lost their lives during the Armenian Genocide.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to memorialize and record a courageous story of survival of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children. As the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau documented at the time, it was a campaign of ``race extermination.'' The campaign to annihilate the Armenian people failed, as illustrated by the proud Armenian nation and prosperous diaspora. It is difficult if not impossible to find an Armenian family not touched by the genocide, and while there are some survivors still with us, it is imperative that we record their stories. Through the Armenian Genocide Congressional Record Project, I hope to document the harrowing stories of the survivors in an effort to preserve their accounts and to help educate the Members of Congress now and in the future of the necessity of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Below is one of those stories: From Simon Sako Simonian, an Armenian man, on behalf of his father, Nerses, and grandparents, Johnny and Golanbar ``My Grandfather, Johnny, and my Grandmother, Golanbar, lived in Orumieh, a city in Iran close to the Turkish border. They had been blessed with four children (one of them named Nerses, my Father). My Grandfather was a well-educated and knowledgeable person. He was fluent in more than 12 languages, as well as one of the few people at that time who was able to properly and accurately translate and describe the Bible. He was a respected man--a religious man devoted to God. He was so highly respected that whenever the Consul of the U.S. would go there, he would always request to meet with my Grandfather. ``During the Armenian Genocide, the Shah (King) of Iran was a very weak person; therefore the Turks were able to enter Iran and do the mass killing and elimination of Armenians and Christians in that area. ``One day, during the dark years of the Armenian Genocide, a group of Turkish soldiers knocked on my Grandfather's door. One of the Turkish soldiers told my Grandfather that they were going to kill him and that he should speak now or never if he had any requests. My Grandfather said that his only wish is for them to let him pray just one more time. He was allowed to step forward to the courtyard for his prayer. As soon as he raised his hands towards the sky to God to start his prayer, he was shot and killed from behind. ``He was shot and killed from behind, without a single word of prayer being spoken from his lips. They also killed my Grandmother. ``The four children, one of them being Nerses, were hiding. When this occurred, they fled out and joined the crowd in the street running away as fast as they could. All four children ranged anywhere from 10 to 16 years old. During this time, my father, Nerses, caught a severe cold since he was out in the cold for 20 to 25 days. Orumich is cold, especially during the time of this occurrence. However, my father was soon taken in and cared for by the Presbyterian Church in Iran, where he was cared for for a few years. ``Sadly, he was still not feeling well, and soon developed a kidney malfunction. In 1929, regardless of his fragile state, he married Sophia, the love of his life in Masjed Suleiman, which is a city located in the southwest region of Iran. ``My father passed away at the young age of 38, when I was only two years old. He left behind his written testimony--his terrifying and heartbreaking memories of the Armenian Genocide. This is why I can share all this with you today.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Pasadena Host Lions Club as it celebrates 90 years of service. Since its beginning on March 26, 1920, with 41 charter members, the Pasadena Host Lions Club has tirelessly served the Pasadena community as part of the Lions Clubs International, a globally recognized organization that boasts over 1.4 million volunteers and 45,000 clubs throughout the world. Former President Jimmy Carter is one of the most notable living Lions. The Lions clubs, ``Knights of the Blind,'' as Helen Keller once called them, are well-known for their support of organizations that serve the sight impaired. Although the Pasadena Lions Club follows this tradition, such as its well-known support of a ``White Cane'' drive in the 1920s, the club is also active in other community activities. In the 1930s, the club, as a member of United Service Clubs, helped Pasadena enter its first float in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, and has been involved with this tradition ever since, eventually building the first annual Lions float in the 1990s. In 1933, amidst the chaos of the Long Beach earthquake, Pasadena Lions were among the first responders, providing financial relief and ambulance service to victims. The 1940s brought the pandemonium of World War II, a war in which many members served, and during which the club assisted in the war effort by selling tens of thousands of war bonds; additionally, during this time, the club donated an iron lung to Huntington Memorial Hospital. In the 1950s, the club bought land and a building to house the Braille Club of Pasadena; during the 1960s, the club purchased the land and established the Vista Nova Home of the Blind in Pasadena; and in the 1970s, the Pasadena Host Lions Club helped to found the Lions Eye Foundation of Southern California. Also in the 1970s, the club was recognized as the all-time fundraising Lions Club in its district. Over the many decades, the Pasadena Host Lions Club has expanded its charitable efforts to support many organizations in the Pasadena area, including Longfellow Elementary School, Union Station Homeless Services, Rosemary Children's Services, Huntington Memorial Hospital, and Partners in Education, while continuing their support of the Pasadena Braille Club, Vista Nova Home of the Blind and the White Cane effort. In addition, the club developed youth Leo Clubs in elementary and high schools in Pasadena, installing youth with the spirit of volunteer leadership. The Pasadena Host Lions Club has tirelessly served the Pasadena area over the last nine decades and the residents have benefitted greatly from their generosity. I ask all Members to join with me in commending the Pasadena Host Lions Club on their landmark 90th anniversary.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, the recent vote in the United Nations Security Council to impose a new round of tougher economic sanctions on Iran was a significant national security success for the United States, and part of President Obama's broader push to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism or accidental nuclear exchange. For years there has been a broad consensus that a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon is the gravest threat facing our country. During the 2004 Presidential debates, both Senator John Kerry and President Bush pointed to such an attack as the ultimate nightmare scenario. Unfortunately, the prior administration failed to make nonproliferation a priority and blocked any progress at the 2005 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, putting the international nonproliferation regime at risk. President Obama came into office pledging to make nuclear nonproliferation a priority, and he has delivered on multiple fronts: First, by increasing American and international pressure on Iran; and second, by working with Russia and others to reduce both countries' stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material. The Iran resolution, one of the most important to emerge from the Security Council in years, is a triumph for American diplomacy. When the President took office last January, the United States was diplomatically isolated, and unwilling to engage in the hard work of diplomacy that would pressure Iran to engage seriously with the international community. But that has now changed. The U.N. resolution increases the pressure on Iran to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons by expanding the list of organizations and individuals subject to financial restrictions and travel bans. And significantly, it also prevents and prohibits most conventional arms sales to Iran, a major step considering that veto-wielding Russia and China have been Iran's major arms suppliers for years. While Iran has remained outwardly defiant in the wake of the June 9 resolution, the U.N. resolution was quickly followed by a fresh round of European Union sanctions, and by our passage of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act, which was signed into law today by President Obama. These new sanctions have had an immediate effect. Just days after Congress passed the legislation, France's Total, the last major Western energy company dealing with Iran, announced that it would stop providing refined petroleum to Tehran, while South Korea's GS Engineering and Construction canceled a $1.2 billion gas project in Iran. The stakes are clear. If Tehran's nuclear weapons program were to bear fruit, elements of the Iranian regime could divert a weapon or materials to a terrorist group under its control, perhaps Hamas or Hezbollah. An Iranian bomb could also trigger a nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile region. This cannot be allowed to happen. And President Obama and this Congress are determined that it shall not happen. The last 2 years have also seen a revitalization of our efforts to assert American leadership in nuclear nonproliferation. President Obama was the leader in the Senate on nuclear terrorism and nonproliferation issues. I had the pleasure of working with him then to strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspection program. Now as President, we are again working together, and the President recently signed legislation that I authored to develop our nuclear forensic capability. The President has also proposed budgets that significantly increase investment in nonproliferation efforts and technologies. He understands we can't face this threat alone. There are 50 tons of unsecured nuclear material around the world. And to succeed in bringing it under lock and key, we must convince many Nations that this is a security risk for all. Last September, the President led an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council to bring nuclear security the worldwide attention it needs. And this April he hosted the largest summit meeting that America has ever seen to convince world leaders that this is not only an important problem, but an urgent one. The summit produced a worldwide consensus to secure nuclear materials around the world within 4 years, a groundbreaking plan that the administration and Congress are now implementing. On April 8, President Obama signed a treaty with Russia to cut nuclear weapons by 30 percent. This too is a crucial step forward. By working with Russians to reduce their arsenals and ours, we remove unthinkably dangerous weapons from high alert, and demonstrate that building nuclear weapons is not a sign of a world power; getting rid of them is. There is much work yet to be done. But President Obama and the leadership in Congress have clearly returned the issue of nonproliferation to the center of the policy debate, where it belongs.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Richard Harris on his recent election to the Board of Directors at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, NAFCU. Mr. Harris has shown tremendous leadership at Caltech Federal Credit Union, where he currently serves as president and CEO, as well as treasurer of the Caltech Credit Union Board of Directors. Undoubtedly, NAFCU will benefit greatly from Mr. Harris's vast experience in credit union management which dates back to 1981. Over the years Mr. Harris has been an active member of the NAFCU family and is a welcomed addition to the board at a time when Congress has taken up legislation that would significantly reform the financial services sector and the way credit unions do business. It is because of the good work and leadership of Richard and others like him that the credit union community enjoys the success it has today. Such service is the hallmark of credit unions and I wish Mr. Harris the best of luck in his new role as a member of the NAFCU Board of Directors. I look forward to working with him in this capacity and I ask my colleagues to join me today in congratulating Richard on this achievement.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Dr. Michael Escalante, whose tenure as Superintendent of the Glendale Unified School District has contributed substantially to its increases in student achievement. This feat is especially commendable considering the significant fiscal challenges the district has been and is currently facing. The Glendale Unified School District is an impressive school system in its own right, encompassing 27,000 students and 2,500 employees at 31 schools--twenty-three of which have been recognized as California Distinguished Schools, nine as National Blue Ribbon schools, and 11 as Title 1 Achieving Schools. As its Superintendent, Dr. Escalante has guided GUSD towards many more distinctions and accomplishments. Under his leadership, the district has garnered many state and national awards for student achievement, helped establish and expand programs such as the Foreign Language Academies of Glendale, and created Focus on Results, a district-wide professional development plan. Even more impressively, Dr. Escalante's accomplishments stretch back before his role as superintendent. Prior to joining GUSD, Dr. Escalante began his teaching career at the elementary and high school levels and served for seven years in this capacity. He subsequently rose through the ranks to enter other administrative assignments, including Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, administrative assistant, elementary principal, intermediate principal, and two separate tenures as a high school principal. Dr. Escalante's experience is extensive and he has worked in several school districts, including Hawthorne, Centinela Valley, Santa Monica, Malibu, Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Long Beach Unified. As evidenced by the GUSD's successes, his wide breadth and sheer depth of experience has clearly been invaluable to its development. Dr. Michael Escalante has been a tremendous asset to the Glendale Unified School District and to the City of Glendale, and I ask all members to join me in thanking him for his dedicated service to education.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 380 and 381, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Last week's interdiction by the Israeli Navy of a small flotilla of ships trying to run the blockade on Hamas-controlled Gaza ignited a firestorm around the world. Foreign commentators, who look askance at the Jewish state in the best of times, condemned the raid in the strongest of terms, attempting to cast it as another example of Israel's supposed slide toward South African-style apartheid or even fascism. Here and in Israel, itself, the reaction reflected a deeper understanding of the broad spectrum of threats confronting Israel. The execution of the raid, itself, was criticized in some quarters, but there remains a fundamental understanding of the underlying conditions that gave rise to Israel's blockade of Gaza and a realization that those conditions persist and that, as long as Gaza remains under the control of Hamas, there can be no lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Hamas leaders and their masters in Tehran and Damascus have repeatedly refused to renounce terror, to abide by agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority and Israel and to recognize Israel's right to exist. They have used Gaza's impoverished population as human shields in their war of attrition with Israel and have subordinated their people's needs to the quest for rockets and other weapons. Two days ago, Israeli forces intercepted an armed squad of five terrorists who were wearing diving suits and who were apparently on their way to attack Israeli targets. Madam Speaker, there can be no doubt that these are dangerous times for Israel and that America must stand by the Middle East's only democracy in its quest for peace and security. Despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions, including today's passage of tighter finance curbs and an expanded arms embargo, Iran has not been deterred in its quest to develop nuclear weapons. While this latest round of sanctions is a welcomed step, there is deep skepticism that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the hard-line clerics who rule Iran can be dissuaded from their present course. An Iran armed with the bomb would be a catastrophe, destabilizing the Middle East and triggering an arms race in the region. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have done a great service to Israel, to the greater Middle East, and to the cause of international peace and security through their efforts to forge a consensus in the Security Council, and I offer them my personal thanks. Yet, even as we applaud today's sanctions vote, we must redouble our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and I look forward to further diplomatic and unilateral initiatives to convince Tehran that the costs of continuing on this reckless path are greater than any perceived benefit. Hezbollah, the Shiite militia cum political party created in Lebanon by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1983, has rearmed in the aftermath of the 2006 war with Israel. Its arsenal of short-range missiles has reportedly been augmented by longer range Scuds, which can reach targets throughout Israel. The Scuds, believed to be supplied by Syria, augment Hezbollah's existing stockpile of up to 40,000 rockets stored in underground bunkers in southern Lebanon. Turkey, which had been Israel's strongest Muslim majority ally and an important mediator between Jerusalem and Arab capitals, has, in recent months, become deeply hostile to Israel. In addition to hosting the organizers of the Gaza flotilla, Turkey has said it would reduce military and trade ties, and it has put off discussions of energy projects, including natural gas and freshwater shipments. Last year, Prime Minister Erdogan accused Israel of being a greater violator of human rights than Sudan, and today, Turkey was one of only two votes against new rounds of sanctions against Iran in the Security Council. Most worrisome in the long term is the broad-based international campaign to delegitimize Israel. University campuses have been divided by divestment campaigns. There have been academic and economic boycotts of Israel in Europe, and many Israelis are wary of traveling to several European countries. The great majority of the world's people alive today were not born until well after World War II and did not bear witness to the Holocaust. They did not watch as thousands of Jewish refugees, desperate to start new lives in Palestine after the war, were forcibly prevented from entering the country by Britain. They did not witness the miracle of Israel's birth in 1948 and the immediate invasion of the new state by five Arab armies. For more than six decades, this country has stood by Israel. We have admired its pluck, its ingenuity, and its dedication to democratic principles in spite of all of the threats it faces. While there has always been a strategic dimension to the U.S.-Israel alliance, the relationship has really been rooted in our shared values. Madam Speaker, 17 years ago, on the occasion of the signing of the Oslo Accords, late Prime Minister Rabin spoke movingly of his journey. He said, ``We have come from Jerusalem, the ancient and eternal capital of the Jewish people. We have come from an anguished and grieving land. We have come from a people, a home, a family, that has not known a single year--not a single month--in which mothers have not wept for their sons. We have come to try and put an end to the hostilities so that our children and our children's children will no longer have to experience the painful cost of war, violence, and terror. ``We have come to secure their lives and to ease the sorrow and the painful memories of the past--to hope and pray for peace.'' We share the prime minister's sorrow, and to the people of Israel, we say, America is with you.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, Israel has the right and the duty to defend its citizens from attack, and it is both reasonable and prudent to interdict weapons from being smuggled into Gaza. Last Monday's confrontation between Israeli naval forces and a group of activists seeking to bring supplies to the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip was tragic, and I join the worldwide outpouring of grief over the deaths of nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara. In the midst of his tragedy, we must not forget that Israel has been engaged in a protracted struggle with Hamas, a terrorist organization that has repeatedly stated that it will never accept Israel's right to exist, and which has used the 1.4 million people of Gaza as human shields for rocket attacks and other acts of terror against Israeli citizens. The Turkish group that organized the flotilla, the IHH, must accept responsibility for the loss of life aboard the ship by deliberately provoking a confrontation with Israeli Navy personnel enforcing a legal blockade of Gaza. Rather than accepting Israel's offer to offload its cargo in Israel for subsequent transport via the land crossings into Gaza, the Mavi Marmara chose to try to run the blockade and then resisted the Israeli boarding party, beating Israeli troops with metal pipes and other weapons. In the days since the incident, it has been revealed some of those aboard the ship were jihadist provocateurs seeking a clash with the Israeli military. And regrettably in this, they were successful. The international community must show greater resolve in forcing Hamas to renounce terror, accept Israel's right to exist, and abide by prior agreements. We must work together with Israel to meet the urgent needs of the people of Gaza, but Hamas bears ultimate responsibility for the continued suffering of the people of that region.

Mr. SCHIFF

Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise to commend Archbishop Hovnan Derderian on the 30th anniversary of his ordination into the Priesthood and the 20th anniversary of his elevation to the rank of Bishop. Archbishop Derderian is Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America. The Western Diocese covers the Western United States. Archbishop Derderian was born in 1957 in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1980, he was ordained as a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1987 Archbishop Derderian received his Master's Degree in Theology from Oxford University, and was raised to the rank of ``Dzairakuyn Vartabed.'' In 1990 he was elected Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church in Canada, and later in 1990, was ordained as a Bishop by His Holiness Vazken I. On February 18, 1993 he was made an Archbishop. In 2003, Archbishop Derderian was elected Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America by the 76th Annual Assembly. Since being elevated to the rank of Archbishop, he has led many projects of great importance to the Church and the community. He created the Christian Youth Mission to Armenia in 2003 which builds ties between youths living in America to Armenia through travel and internship programs. Under his leadership, the Church is nearing completion of the first ever Cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church on the West Coast, located in Burbank, California. Additionally, since his appointment as Primate he has ordained five new priests to serve the Western Diocese. Archbishop Derderian's commitment to serving the faithful and the community are admirable. I congratulate him on his 30 years of service in the Priesthood and thank him for his leadership.