2017 -- H 6120

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LC002370

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2017

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" AND "ARMENIAN

GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY" AND AVOWING THAT THESE ATROCITIES

SHALL NEVER BE REPEATED

     

     Introduced By: Representatives Kazarian, Ackerman, Regunberg, Knight, and Corvese

     Date Introduced: April 13, 2017

     Referred To: House read and passed

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     WHEREAS, The State of Rhode Island has consistently demonstrated its concerns and

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interests regarding raising awareness on the subjects of Holocaust and Genocide, and the

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necessity for civic education, of which Genocide education should be a component; and

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     WHEREAS, In 2016, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Armenian

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community spearheaded the drive to amend the Rhode Island General Laws in order to require

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more comprehensive and inclusive educational requirements on the subjects of Holocaust and

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Genocide; and

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     WHEREAS, Resultantly, House Bill 7488 SUB A was passed by the General Assembly

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and subsequently signed into law on June 17, 2016; and

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     WHEREAS, The legislation requires the Rhode Island Board of Education to include

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instruction on the subjects of Holocaust and Genocide studies in an appropriate place in the

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curriculum, for all middle and high school students; and

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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, 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." The post-World War I Turkish government indicted the top

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leaders involved in the organization and execution of the Armenian Genocide and in the

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"massacre and destruction of the Armenians," and in a series of court-martials, officials of the

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Young Turk regime were charged, tried and convicted, for organizing and executing massacres

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against the Armenian people; and

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     WHEREAS, Holocaust is the term used to refer to the period in world history from 1933

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to 1945, before and during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis systematically and

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barbarically persecuted and murdered nearly six million Jews and another five million non-Jews

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throughout Europe because they were perceived to be "racially inferior" and "life unworthy of

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life"; and

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     WHEREAS, The infamous and brutal killing grounds of Auschwitz, Buchenwald,

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Dachau and Belson, today house the unnatural quiet and ghostly calm of somber rows of sanitized

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barracks and rusting ovens, and stand as speechless memorials to the six million Jews and eleven

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million total victims who succumbed to the deliberate Nazi program of Genocide that was the

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Holocaust; and

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     WHEREAS, This year marks the 102nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

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committed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, and the 74th Anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto

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Uprising; 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; and

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     WHEREAS, The citizens of Rhode Island, having our own rich heritage of resistance and

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intolerance for those who would trample individual liberty and dignity, applaud the courageous

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efforts of the Armenians in their brave fight for their survival and their ancestral homeland and

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the valiant efforts of ghetto residents for whom day to day survival was a relentless struggle. The

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brave actions of the Armenian and Jewish people stand as testimony to a rare and indomitable

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human spirit and extraordinary courage exhibited in the darkest hours of man's inhumanity; and

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     WHEREAS, Rhode Islanders and people of all nations must take the time to remember

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and educate their youth about the millions of men, women and children who were slaughtered

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simply because of their beliefs and their heritage, or their strengths or their frailties, and we must

 

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firmly avow that the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust will never be

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repeated; now, therefore be it

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     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

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Providence Plantations hereby commemorates "Holocaust Remembrance Day" and "Armenian

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Genocide Remembrance Day"; and be it further

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     RESOLVED, That this House hereby expresses its deepest sympathy to the Jewish-

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American and Armenian-American communities of Rhode Island and thanks them for their

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efforts to assure that these atrocious and unconscionable events will always be commemorated

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and never forgotten by future generations; 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 Donald Trump, President of the

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

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Governor of the State of Rhode Island.

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LC002370

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