House of Commons Hansard #18 of the 37th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was turkey.

Topics

Armenian PeoplePrivate Members' Business

6:45 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)

I would like to clarify with the hon. member because we are not sure what he wants.

Armenian PeoplePrivate Members' Business

6:45 p.m.

Liberal

Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Brampton Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I would like to table the documents I mentioned earlier. I have clippings from the Evening Telegram , the New York Times , the London Times and the Globe and Mail newspapers. These documents speak about the issue at the time. They are not edited. They are simply historical facts as they were written in 1915.

Armenian PeoplePrivate Members' Business

6:45 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)

Does the hon. member have unanimous consent to table the documents?

Armenian PeoplePrivate Members' Business

6:45 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Armenian PeoplePrivate Members' Business

6:45 p.m.

Liberal

Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Brampton Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I am sure anyone who would study these historical facts would find many undisputed facts in this presentation.

I mentioned earlier that the Créditistes in the 1960s were probably the first political party in the House of Commons to raise the issue of the Armenian genocide. Since then, in the 1970s and 1980s we passed many resolutions in the House to bring the issue into focus for the Canadian public.

I have to say that the issue was quite forceful and brought out many points of view on how to solve this problem. I am pleased that our Parliament in the past 10 years has passed many resolutions. One resolution was passed a couple of years ago by the Senate. The resolution asked the government and the Parliament of Canada to recognize this genocide as an historic event.

The second resolution passed nine to seven in the foreign affairs committee. That was an historic day for us. The foreign affairs committee accepted the fact that the House of Commons must recognize the act of genocide and passed the resolution on to the Government of Canada. I would like to have that motion passed again.

The motion was:

That the Committee invite the House of Commons to recognize the genocide of the Armenians, which began at the turn of the last C century, by the Ottoman Turks, during the First World War.

There was also a resolution passed in 1996 which was mentioned earlier. The resolution declared April 20 to 27 as a week of remembrance of the inhumanity to fellow man.

What is important is that we have to continue this struggle not only for the sake of Armenians, not only for the sake of the Turks, but it is vital to recognize the historical fact. When we take positive steps, it will help bring these two nations together forever. They will live together because Armenia and Turkey are still there. Armenia will not vanish and neither will Turkey.

It is better that we do our part to bring them together so they can move forward for the peace, security and prosperity of both the Armenians and Turks.

Armenian PeoplePrivate Members' Business

6:45 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)

The time provided for the consideration of private members' business has now expired and the order is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the Order Paper.

It being 6.49 p.m., the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 6:49 p.m.)