Bill Text: CA AJR34 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Armenian Genocide.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2016-04-21 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 26, Statutes of 2016. [AJR34 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AJR34-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: AJR 34 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
RESOLUTION CHAPTER 26
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE APRIL 21, 2016
ADOPTED IN SENATE APRIL 18, 2016
ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 18, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 12, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Achadjian, Bonta, Brown, Calderon,
Chu, Dababneh, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Cristina Garcia, Gatto, Grove,
Jones, Levine, Lopez, Nazarian, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth, Wagner,
and Wilk
(Principal coauthors: Senators Anderson, De León, Gaines, Hall,
Lara, Leno, Liu, Nielsen, and Pan)
MARCH 16, 2016
Relative to the Armenian Genocide.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 34, Achadjian. Armenian Genocide.
This measure would, among other things, designate the year of 2016
as "State of California Year of Commemoration of the Anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923," would designate April 24, 2016,
as "State of California Day of Commemoration of the 101st Anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923," and would call upon the
President of the United States and the United States Congress to
formally and consistently reaffirm the historical truth that the
atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted
genocide.
WHEREAS, Armenians have resided in Asia Minor and the Caucasus for
approximately four millennia, and have a long and rich history in
the region, including the establishment of many kingdoms, and despite
Armenians' historic presence, stewardship, and autonomy in the
region, Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of
Turkey subjected Armenians to severe and unjust persecution and
brutality, including wholesale massacres beginning in the 1890s; and
WHEREAS, The Armenian nation was subjected to a systematic and
premeditated genocide officially beginning on April 24, 1915, at the
hands of the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire from
1915-1919 and continued at the hands of the Kemalist Movement of
Turkey from 1920-1923 whereby over 1.5 million Armenian men, women,
and children were slaughtered or marched to their deaths in an effort
to annihilate the Armenian nation in the first genocide of modern
times, while thousands of surviving Armenian women and children were
forcibly converted and Islamized, and hundreds of thousands more were
subjected to ethnic cleansing during the period of the modern
Republic of Turkey from 1924-1937; and
WHEREAS, During the genocides of the Christians living in the
Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, which occurred during the
first one-half of the 20th century, 1.5 million men, women, and
children of Armenian descent, and hundreds of thousands of Assyrians,
Greeks, and other Christians, lost their lives at the hands of the
Ottoman Turkish Empire and the Republic of Turkey, constituting one
of the most atrocious violations of human rights in the history of
the world; and
WHEREAS, These crimes against humanity also had the consequence of
permanently removing all traces of the Armenians and other targeted
people from their historic homelands of more than four millennia, and
enriching the perpetrators with the lands and other property of the
victims of these crimes, including the usurpation of several thousand
churches; and
WHEREAS, In response to the genocide and at the behest of
President Woodrow Wilson and the United States State Department, the
Near East Relief organization was founded, and became the first
congressionally sanctioned American philanthropic effort created
exclusively to provide humanitarian assistance and rescue to the
Armenian nation and other Christian minorities from annihilation, who
went on to survive and thrive outside of their ancestral homeland
all over the world and specifically in this state; and
WHEREAS, Near East Relief succeeded, with the active participation
of the citizens from this state, in delivering $117 million in
assistance, and saving more than one million refugees, including
132,000 orphans, between 1915 and 1930, by delivering food, clothing,
and materials for shelter, setting up refugee camps, clinics,
hospitals, and orphanages; and
WHEREAS, The Armenian nation survived the genocide despite the
attempt by the Ottoman Empire to exterminate it; and
WHEREAS, Adolf Hitler, in persuading his army commanders that the
merciless persecution and killing of Jews, Poles, and other people
would bring no retribution, declared, "Who, after all, speaks today
of the annihilation of the Armenians?"; and
WHEREAS, On November 4, 1918, immediately after the collapse of
the Young Turk regime and before the founding of the Republic of
Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923, the Ottoman Parliament
considered a motion on the crimes committed by the Committee of Union
and Progress (CUP) stating: "A population of one million people
guilty of nothing except belonging to the Armenian nation were
massacred and exterminated, including even women and children." The
Minister of Interior at the time, Fethi Bey, responded by telling the
Parliament: "It is the intention of the government to cure every
single injustice done up until now, as far as the means allow, to
make possible the return to their homes of those sent into exile, and
to compensate for their material loss as far as possible"; and
WHEREAS, On August 1, 1926, in an interview published in the Los
Angeles Examiner, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk admitted: "These left-overs
from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to
account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were
ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been
restive under the Republican rule. They have hitherto lived on
plunder, robbery and bribery and become inimical to any idea or
suggestion to enlist in useful labor and earn their living by the
honest sweat of their brow"; and
WHEREAS, The Parliamentary Investigative Committee proceeded to
collect relevant documents describing the actions of those
responsible for the Armenian mass killings and turned them over to
the Turkish Military Tribunal. CUP's leading figures were found
guilty of massacring Armenians and hanged or given lengthy prison
sentences. The Turkish Military Tribunal requested that Germany
extradite to Turkey the masterminds of the massacres who had fled the
country. After German refusal, they were tried in absentia and
sentenced to death; and
WHEREAS, Unlike other people and governments that have admitted
and denounced the abuses and crimes of predecessor regimes, and
despite the Turkish government's earlier admissions and the
overwhelming proof of genocidal intent, the Republic of Turkey
inexplicably and adamantly has denied the occurrence of the crimes
against humanity committed by the Ottoman and Young Turk rulers for
many years, and continues to do so a full century since the first
crimes constituting genocide occurred; and
WHEREAS, Those denials compound the grief of the few remaining
survivors and deprive the surviving Armenian nation of its individual
and collective ancestral lands, property, cultural heritage,
financial assets, and population growth; and
WHEREAS, The Republic of Turkey has escalated its international
campaign of Armenian Genocide denial, maintained its blockade of
Armenia, and increased its pressure on the small but growing movement
in Turkey acknowledging the Armenian Genocide and seeking justice
for this systematic campaign of destruction of millions of Armenians,
Greeks, Assyrians, and other Christians upon their biblical-era
homelands; and
WHEREAS, Those citizens of Turkey, both Armenian and non-Armenian,
who continue to speak the truth about the Armenian Genocide, such as
human rights activist and journalist Hrant Dink, continue to be
silenced by violent means; and
WHEREAS, There is continued concern about the welfare of
Christians in the Republic of Turkey, their right to worship and
practice freely, and the legal status and condition of thousands of
ancient Armenian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and other
historical and cultural structures, sites, and antiquities in the
Republic of Turkey; and
WHEREAS, The United States is on record as having officially
recognized the Armenian Genocide in the United States government's
May 28, 1951, written statement to the International Court of Justice
regarding the Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, through President Ronald Reagan'
s April 22, 1981, Proclamation No. 4838, and by congressional
legislation including House Joint Resolution 148 adopted on April 9,
1975, and House Joint Resolution 247 adopted on September 12, 1984;
and
WHEREAS, Prior to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide, the United States had a record of seeking
just and constructive means to address the consequences of the
Ottoman Empire's intentional destruction of the Armenian people,
including through United States Senate Concurrent Resolution 12
adopted on February 9, 1916, United States Senate Resolution 359
adopted on May 11, 1920, and President Woodrow Wilson's November 22,
1920, decision titled, "The Frontier between Armenia and Turkey,"
which was issued as a binding arbitral award, yet has not been
enforced to this date despite its legally binding status; and
WHEREAS, President Barack Obama entered office "calling for Turkey'
s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide" and on April 24, 2013, and
similarly on April 24, 2014, he further stated, "A full, frank, and
just acknowledgment of the facts is in all of our interests. Peoples
and nations grow stronger, and build a more just and tolerant future,
by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past";
and
WHEREAS, California is home to the largest Armenian American
population in the United States, and Armenians living in California
have enriched our state through their leadership and contribution in
business, agriculture, academia, government, and the arts, many of
whom have family members who experienced firsthand the horror and
evil of the Armenian Genocide and its ongoing denial; and
WHEREAS, Every person should be made aware and educated about the
Armenian Genocide and other crimes against humanity; and
WHEREAS, The State of California has been at the forefront of
encouraging and promoting a curriculum relating to human rights and
genocide in order to empower future generations to prevent the
recurrence of genocide; and
WHEREAS, April 24, 1915, is globally observed and recognized as
the commencement of the Armenian Genocide; and
WHEREAS, Armenians in the State of California and throughout the
world have not been provided with justice for the crimes perpetrated
against the Armenian nation despite the fact that over a century has
passed since the crimes were first committed; and
WHEREAS, The Armenian people in the State of California and
throughout the world remain resolved and their spirit continues to
thrive more than a century after their near annihilation; now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature hereby designates the year
of 2016 as "State of California Year of Commemoration of the
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923" and in doing so,
intends, through the enactment of legislation, that the Armenian
Genocide is properly commemorated and taught to its citizens and
visitors through statewide educational and cultural events; and be it
further
Resolved, That the Legislature hereby designates April 24, 2016,
as "State of California Day of Commemoration of the 101st Anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923"; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature commends its conscientious
educators who teach about human rights and genocide, and intends for
them, through the enactment of legislation, to continue to enhance
their efforts to educate students at all levels about the experience
of the Armenians and other crimes against humanity; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature hereby commends the extraordinary
service which was delivered by Near East Relief to the survivors of
the Armenian Genocide and the Assyrian Genocide, including thousands
of direct beneficiaries of American philanthropy who are the parents,
grandparents, and great-grandparents of many Californian Armenians
and Assyrians, and pledges its intent, through the enactment of
legislation, to working with community groups, nonprofit
organizations, citizens, state personnel, and the community at large
to host statewide educational and cultural events; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature deplores the persistent, ongoing
efforts by any person, in this country or abroad, to deny the
historical fact of the Armenian Genocide; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature respectfully calls upon the
President of the United States and the United States Congress to
formally and consistently reaffirm the historical truth that the
atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted
genocide; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature calls on the President of the
United States to work toward equitable, constructive, stable, and
durable Armenian-Turkish relations; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative
from California in the Congress of the United States, to the Governor
of California, to every member of the California State Legislature,
and to the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
