2020 -- S 2873

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2020

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

PROCLAIMING MAY 19TH OF 2020 AS "GREEK PONTIAN GENOCIDE

REMEMBRANCE DAY" IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     Introduced By: Senators Raptakis, Euer, Lombardi, Gallo, and Conley

     Date Introduced: June 16, 2020

     Referred To: Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar

     WHEREAS, Rhode Island is proud to be the home of numerous ethnic communities,

many of whom have prospered and enjoyed the freedom and democracy upon which our nation

was founded; tragically, throughout history, the people of many countries have not realized the

same autonomy and equality; and

     WHEREAS, From 1914 until 1922, in a systematic attempt to exterminate an entire

population, the Ottoman Turks directed the killing of 353,000 Pontian and Anatolian Greeks and

over a million Armenians and Assyrians living in Pontos, and an equal number who were forced

to flee their homeland in one of the most condemnable atrocities in the history of the world; and

     WHEREAS, The Ottoman and Kemals Neoturks engaged in exile, starvation, slaughter,

and murder, using axes and fire to massacre the Pontic Greek population and perpetrate the first

mass genocide of the 20th century, and 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; and

     WHEREAS, It is vital and proper to remember those who lost their lives in the Pontian

Genocide, and it is paramount that people of all nations look at this horrific event in our world’s

not-so-distant history as a way to learn a valuable lesson, so that such atrocities are not tolerated

and are never committed again; and

     WHEREAS, It is likewise important to pay tribute to the survivors of this atrocious

period, as well as their descendants, who have made countless contributions to the enrichment of

our culture and our way of life here in the Ocean State and who stand as an inspiration to

oppressed people around the world; and

     WHEREAS, 2020 will be memorialized throughout the world as the symbolic 101st

Anniversary of the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks. May we never forget the brutality the Pontian

Greeks experienced at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and may we learn the hard lessons from

the past so that the history of the Pontian Genocide, and all Genocides, never happen again; now,

therefore be it

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

hereby joins the Greek-American community on May 19th of each year in a solemn

commemoration of the Pontian Genocide of 1914-1922; and be it further

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

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Gus Tsilfides, President Pan-Pontian Federation

of USA and Canada and Georgios Gialtouridis of the Pontian Society "Panagia Soumela" Boston.

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