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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

committing "a crime against humanity"; and

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

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

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

and

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

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

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

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

persecution"; and

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

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

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

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

people; and

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

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

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

     WHEREAS, The United States National Archives and Record Administration holds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhode Island; and be it further

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the Armenian National Committee in Washington.

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