Washington - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, today introduced a Senate resolution that would call upon the president to officially recognize the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as genocide.

"Only when history's darkest hours are acknowledged and understood can we truly learn from them and build a peaceful future upon those lessons," said Menendez. "One and a half million Armenians experienced Hell on Earth, and to sweep their plight under the rug is to insult their memories and their descendants. It is long past time that our nation help set the historical record straight and provide a foundation of understanding that helps prevent future atrocities."

Over the course of eight years, the Ottoman Empire removed nearly 2,000,000 Armenians from their homeland, where they had existed for 2,500 years. Of that population, 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed. In 1915, England, France and Russia jointly condemned this "crime against humanity," the first ever such charge against another government.

After World War I, the Turkish Government indicted the top leaders involved in the ''organization and execution'' of the Armenian Genocide and in the ''massacre and destruction of the Armenians.'' In a series of courts-martial, officials of the Young Turk Regime were tried and convicted, as charged, for organizing and executing massacres against the Armenian people.

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