Sens. Cruz, Menendez, Colleagues Send Bipartisan Letter Urging President Biden to Recognize Armenian Genocide

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), member and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today sent a bipartisan letter joined by 36 Senate colleagues, urging the Biden administration to join the U.S. Congress in officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide. On December 12, 2019, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a measure authored by Sens. Cruz and Menendez, recognizing and commemorating the Armenian Genocide.

Co-signers of the letter include Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

Upon sending the letter, Sen. Cruz said:

"The world was silent for far too long, during and after, the Armenian genocide. But we must never be silent in response to atrocity. Democrats and Republicans are united in simply speaking the truth, recognizing the genocide that occurred, honoring the 1.5 million innocent lives lost, and making perfectly clear that America stands against genocide."

Read the full text of the letter here and below.

March 19, 2021

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Biden:

We write today to strongly urge you to officially recognize the truth of the Armenian Genocide. In the past you have recognized the Armenian Genocide as genocide, including in your Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day statement during the 2020 campaign. We call on you to do so again as President to make clear that the U.S. government recognizes this terrible truth.

From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire systematically sought to eliminate the Armenian population, killing 1.5 million Armenians and driving hundreds of thousands more from their homeland. We join the Armenian community in the United States and around the world in honoring the memory of these victims, and we stand firmly against attempts to pretend that this intentional, organized effort to destroy the Armenian people was anything other than a genocide. You have correctly stated that American diplomacy and foreign policy must be rooted in our values, including respect for universal rights. Those values require us to acknowledge the truth and do what we can to prevent future genocides and other crimes against humanity.

In December 2019, after decades of obstruction, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide. The House also overwhelmingly passed its own resolution recognizing the facts of the Armenian Genocide in 2019. We appreciate that in your April 2020 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day statement you pledged "to support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide," but Congress has already made its position clear. It is time for executive branch to do so as well.

As you said in your Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day statement last April, "It is particularly important to speak these words and commemorate this history at a moment when we are reminded daily of the power of truth, and of our shared responsibility to stand against hate - because silence is complicity." Administrations of both parties have been silent on the truth of the Armenian Genocide. We urge you to break this pattern of complicity by officially recognizing that the Armenian Genocide was a genocide.

/s/

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