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Home >
Armenian
Genocide
> Quotes |
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Adolf Hitler
August 22, 1939, In preparation for
the impending invasion of Poland, to
Reichmarshal Hermann Goering and the
commanding generals at Obersalzberg...
"Our strength consists in our speed
and in our brutality. Genghis Khan
led millions of women and children
to slaughter - with premeditation
and a happy heart. History sees in
him solely the founder of a state.
It's a matter of indifference to me
what a weak western European
civilization will say about me. I
have issued the command - and I'll
have anybody who utters but one word
of criticism executed by a firing
squad - that our war aim does not
consist in reaching certain lines,
but in the physical destruction of
the enemy. Accordingly, I have
placed my death-head formations in
readiness - for the present only in
the East - with orders to them to
send to death mercilessly and
without compassion, men, women, and
children of Polish derivation and
language. Only thus shall we gain
the living space (Lebensraum) which
we need. Who, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the
Armenians?" |
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Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire, Ambassador Morgenthau's
Story, 1919
"When the Turkish authorities gave
the orders for these deportations,
they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they
understood this well, and, in their
conversations with me, they made no
particular attempt to conceal the
fact… I am confident that the whole
history of the human race contains
no such horrible episode as this.
The great massacres and persecutions
of the past seem almost
insignificant when compared to the
sufferings of the Armenian race in
1915."
More from
Ambassador Morgenthau |
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Count Wolff-Metternich
German Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire July 10, 1916, cable to the
German Chancellor
"In its attempt to carry out its
purpose to resolve the Armenian
question by the destruction of the
Armenian race, the Turkish
government has refused to be
deterred neither by our
representations, nor by those of the
American Embassy, nor by the
delegate of the Pope, nor by the
threats of the Allied Powers, nor in
deference to the public opinion of
the West representing one-half of
the world." |
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Theodore Roosevelt
May 11, 1918, letter to Cleveland
Hoadley Dodge
"…the Armenian massacre was the
greatest crime of the war, and the
failure to act against Turkey is to
condone it… the failure to deal
radically with the Turkish horror
means that all talk of guaranteeing
the future peace of the world is
mischievous nonsense." |
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Gerald Ford
Addressing the US House of
Representatives
"Mr. Speaker, with mixed emotions we
mark the 50th anniversary of the
Turkish genocide of the Armenian
people. In taking notice of the
shocking events in 1915, we observe
this anniversary with sorrow in
recalling the massacres of Armenians
and with pride in saluting those
brave patriots who survived to fight
on the side of freedom during World
War I." - Congressional Record, Pg.
8890 |
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Jimmy Carter
May 16, 1978, White House
ceremony
"It is generally not known in the
world that, in the years preceding
1916, there was a concerted effort
made to eliminate all the Armenian
people, probably one of the greatest
tragedies that ever befell any
group. And there weren't any
Nuremberg trials." |
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Ronald Reagan
April 22, 1981, proclamation
"Like the genocide of the Armenians
before it, and the genocide of the
Cambodians which followed it,… the
lessons of the Holocaust must never
be forgotten." |
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George W. Bush
In a letter dated February 19, 2000
to two of his leading Armenian
American supporters, then
presidential candidate George W.
Bush stated...
"The twentieth century was marred by
wars of unimaginable brutality, mass
murder and genocide. History records
that the Armenians were the first
people of the last century to have
endured these cruelties. The
Armenians were subjected to a
genocidal campaign that defies
comprehension and commands all
decent people to remember and
acknowledge the facts and lessons of
an awful crime in a century of
bloody crimes against humanity. If
elected President, I would ensure
that our nation properly recognizes
the tragic suffering of the Armenian
people." |
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Various quotes by Turkish leaders,
beginning with multiple quotes from
the three rulers of wartime (WWI)
Turkey:
Enver Pasha
One of the triumpharate rulers
publicly declared on 19 May 1916...
"The Ottoman Empire should be
cleaned up of the Armenians and the
Lebanese. We have destroyed the
former by the sword, we shall
destroy the latter through
starvation."
In
reply to US Ambassador Morgenthau
who was deploring the massacres
against Armenians and attributing
them to irresponsible subalterns and
underlings in the distant provinces,
Enver's reply was... "You are
greatly mistaken. We have this
country absolutely under our
control. I have no desire to shift
the blame onto our underlings and I
am entirely willing to accept the
responsibility myself for everything
that has taken place."
Talat Pasha
In a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann
of the German Embassy in June
1915...
"Turkey is taking advantage of the
war in order to thoroughly liquidate
(grundlich aufzaumen) its internal
foes, i.e., the indigenous
Christians, without being thereby
disturbed by foreign intervention."
After
the German Ambassador persistently
brought up the Armenian question in
1918, Talat said "with a smile"...
"What on earth do you want? The
question is settled. There are no
more Armenians."
Cemal Pasha
To a German officer upon seeing the
deportations in Mamure said...
"I am ashamed of my nation (Ich
schame mich fur meine Nation)."
Minister of the Interior of Turkey
publicly declared on March 15 that
on the basis of computations
undertaken by Ministry Experts...
"800,000 Armenian deportees were
actually killed... by holding the
guilty accountable the government is
intent on cleansing the bloody
past."
Prince Abdul Mecid
Heir-Apparent to the Ottoman Throne,
during an interview...
"I refer to those awful massacres.
They are the greatest stain that has
ever disgraced our nation and race.
They were entirely the work of Talat
and Enver. I heard some days before
they began that they were intended.
I went to Istanbul and insisted on
seeing Enver. I asked him if it was
true that they intended to
recommence the massacres which had
been our shame and disgrace under
Abdul Hamid. The only reply I could
get from him was: 'It is decided. It
is the program.'"
Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal
Founder of the modern Turkish
Republic in 1923 and revered
throughout Turkey, in an interview
published on August 1, 1926 in The
Los Angeles Examiner, talking about
former Young Turks in his country...
"These left-overs from the former
Young Turk Party, who should have
been made to account for the
millions of our Christian subjects
who were ruthlessly driven en masse,
from their homes and massacred, have
been restive under the Republican
rule." |
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