Congresswoman Jackie Speier has arrived  in Yerevan as a member of  the presidential delegation to participate in the events marking centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

In her message on Facebook Congresswoman said:

“I have just landed with a presidential delegation to my ancestors’ home in Armenia. Our party from the United States will join officials in Yerevan to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Red Sunday, the day the Ottoman Turkish government set in motion a systematic plan aimed at “solving the Armenian problem.”

On that day, they began by rounding up all the Armenian intellectuals in Turkey for slaughter. Then they went for the able-bodied laborers. Then they went for the women and children and families. They drove them into the desert, starving them, raping them, and splitting their heads open with axes.

We will never forget this horrendous crime. And I will speak the truth wherever I go: I will never decline to call it genocide.

As one of two Armenian-American members of Congress, I count my ancestors among those who died. From an early age, my mother instilled in me the importance of recognizing the genocide and the anguish the Armenian people feel about the need to acknowledge it.

In Yerevan, I will wear a purple poppy, the symbol of genocide remembrance, a flower that is also known as a “forget me not.”

We will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the genocide for all those who died, and all who are yet unborn. We must remember so that we can spare the vulnerable from future genocides.”