Cicilline Calls for Recognition, Apology

WASHINGTON—On May 16, U.S. Congressman David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement called on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was visiting the United States, to formally acknowledge and apologize for the Armenian Genocide.
“Two million Armenian men, women, and children living under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire were systematically slaughtered or forced to leave their homeland,” the statement read. “There is no doubt that this heinous, organized assault on the Armenian people constituted the first genocide of the 20^th century. And yet, even today, nearly a hundred years later, the Turkish government continues to ignore the preponderance of evidence and deny a historical reality.”
“As Prime Minister Erdogan works to improve his country’s standing in the Middle East, and develop a stronger relationship with the United States, he should take this opportunity to acknowledge the atrocities that occurred once and for all, and issue a formal apology to the survivors and the descendants of the victims. His failure to do so would serve only to deepen an indelible stain on the history of his nation.”