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Congressman Adam Schiff took to the House floor on Tuesday to issue an open letter to U.S. President Joe Biden to clearly and unequivocally recognize the Armenian Genocide.

"Mr. President, it is now in your power to right decades of denial, and in so doing, give meaning to your statement last year when you acknowledged the Armenian Genocide and said 'silence is complicity.'

“As a candidate and now as president, you have spoken of your commitment to human rights.  You have spoken of an America who leads not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. If that principle is to have meaning, we cannot waiver from it,” Rep. Schiff said.

“The word “genocide” is significant, because genocide is not a problem of the past, it is a problem of today, including in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs face a relentless campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to wipe out their culture. And it is a danger today in Artsakh, where Turkey assisted Azerbaijan in making war on the Armenians again, and in so doing, threaten another potential genocide. What a comfort it would be to the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in the present day if the most powerful nation on earth could be cowed into silence about the events of a century ago.

“In recognizing the Genocide, you will be joining both the House and the Senate who voted overwhelmingly in 2019 to do so. As you well know, for decades those of us who supported recognition of the genocide faced a ferocious opposition, premised on the harm that such a vote would cause to our relations with Turkey and to our national security.

“Millions of Armenians, in Yerevan and across the world, tens of thousands of my constituents, Mr. President, will look to you later this week, to see if you will join leaders in France, Germany, the European Union, the Vatican, and in 49 states in recognizing the genocide,” the letter reads.