2015 -- S 0834

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2015

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

PROCLAIMING APRIL 24, 2015, AS "ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY"

TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915 TO 1923 AND IN HONOR

OF ARMENIAN-AMERICANS

     

     Introduced By: Senators Gallo, Ruggerio, Goodwin, Jabour, and McCaffrey

     Date Introduced: April 15, 2015

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

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     WHEREAS, The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman

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Empire from 1915 to 1923, and resulted in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of

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whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, and the remaining 500,000 survived but

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were expelled from their homes. This act succeeded in the elimination of the Armenians from

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their historic ancestral homeland where they had resided for over 2,500 years; and

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     WHEREAS, On May 24, 1915, for the first time ever, the Allied Powers of England,

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France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging another government of

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committing "a crime against humanity"; and

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     WHEREAS, This joint statement declared, "the Allied Governments announce publicly

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to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of

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the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres";

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and

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     WHEREAS, United States Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. explicitly described the

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policy of the Ottoman Empire's government to the United States Department of State as "a

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campaign of race extermination," and on July 16, 1915, was informed by United States Secretary

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of State Robert Lansing that the "Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian

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persecution"; and

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     WHEREAS, The post-World War I Turkish government indicted the top leaders involved

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in the organization and execution of the Armenian Genocide and in the "massacre and destruction

 

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of the Armenians," and in a series of court-martials, officials of the Young Turk regime were

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charged, tried and convicted, for organizing and executing massacres against the Armenian

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people; and

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     WHEREAS, In 1948, the United Nations War Crimes Commission invoked the

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Armenian Genocide as "precisely . . . one of the types of acts which the modern term 'crimes

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against humanity' is intended to cover" as a precedent for the Nuremberg tribunals; and

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     WHEREAS, The United States National Archives and Record Administration holds

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extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide, especially in its holdings

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under Record Group 59 of the United States Department of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which

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are open and widely available to the public and interested institutions; and

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     WHEREAS, The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, an independent federal

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agency, unanimously resolved on April 30, 1981, that the United States Holocaust Memorial

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Museum would include the Armenian Genocide in the museum and has since done so; and

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     WHEREAS, When one enters the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, there is an

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exhibit depicting Adolf Hitler, who on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland without

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provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by stating "[w]ho, after all, speaks today of the

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annihilation of the Armenians?", thus setting the stage for the Holocaust; now, therefore be it

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

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hereby recognizes April 24, 2015, as "Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day" in the State of

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Rhode Island; and be it further

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate, on the occasion of the Centennial Anniversary of the

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Armenian Genocide, respectfully requests the President of the United States and the United States

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Congress to call on the government of Turkey to face history and acknowledge this crime of

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genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 and further, urge the Turkish government to

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make restitution for the loss of lives, confiscated properties, and general unlawful deportations,

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separating the indigenous population from their homeland ; and be it further

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate expresses its deepest sympathy to the Armenian-American

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community of Rhode Island and assures them that this genocide will always be commemorated

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and never forgotten; and be it further

 

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     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

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transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the

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United States, the Rhode Island Congressional Delegation, the Honorable Gina Raimondo,

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Governor of the State of Rhode Island, the Armenian Assembly of America in Washington, and

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the Armenian National Committee in Washington.

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