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Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Reports President Biden Will Become First Sitting President To Formally Recognize The Armenian Genocide

Washington, D.C.   Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding President Biden’s reported upcoming announcement to  formally recognize the Armenian genocide. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks which can also be viewed here:

It has come to my attention that President Biden intends to have the United States formally recognize the Armenian genocide, becoming the first sitting U.S. President to do so. Great news.

It’s a long time coming and a step that I have called on presidents of both parties to take. Each year, I gather with Armenian Americans in Times Square to commemorate the annual anniversary of this atrocity. And every year my heart breaks for the victims of the genocide and their descendants. There are very few left but some are very elderly people that are sitting in the audience each year, reminding us how painful and how real that genocide was. The Turkish government’s idea of saying that there was no genocide just defies history. I’ve seen the victims. I’ve talked to the victims.

Saturday marks the 106th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. And I am so relieved, gratified, and moved that we can finally commemorate the anniversary with the knowledge that the government of the United States, led by President Joseph Robinette Biden, will have recognized the truth of the Armenian genocide at last.

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