As a way to commemorate today, I am posting a speech made before the House of Representatives yesterday regarding the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks.

I rise today to commemorate the 89th anniversary of one of history's most terrible tragedies, the Armenian
Genocide.
On April 24, 1915, 300 Armenian leaders, intellectuals and professionals were rounded up in Constantinople, deported and killed, under orders from the Young Turk government. This was the beginning of a campaign of terror resulting in the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians and the deportation of more than 500,000.
The government of the Ottoman Empire justified this policy by claiming it was necessary to suppress revolts being launched by Armenians as a consequence of the ongoing military operations of World War I. This assertion was patently denied by survivors and witnesses. United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morganthau reported at that time, "Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eyewitnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion.''
Not content with perpetrating this atrocity, the Young Turks denied a genocide had taken place. Generations have since been raised denying this tragedy. Such denials are refuted by the archival documents and first-hand accounts found in such recent scholarly works as Peter Balakian's The Burning Tigris and Samantha Power's A Problem From Hell.
Director Atom Egoyan presented the horror of the siege of Van in his film Ararat, which was based, in part, on the memoirs of Clarence Ussher, an American physician and missionary working in Turkey at the time.
Mr. Speaker, for myself and my constituents, I rise today to urge those who deny this genocide to accept it as fact. Only then can we move forward and stop these atrocities from repeating themselves over and over again.

The source doesn't name who wrote this speech.

For my own family's sake I'll say that my Grandmother and Grandfather were first hand witnesses to this tragedy. I had two uncles and an aunt killed along with countless relatives that I'll never even know. It's easy to objectify this by those that are unaffected. But, for me it is my whole family and everything that goes with it that is gone. When I hear people talk about their own family and their traditions, etc it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. All because this tragedy is not even known about by most people, and those who know hide it like a secret best forgotten. At least the Jews had the Nurembourg trials.