Bill Text: TX HR191 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Enrolled
Bill Title: Recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 43-10)
Status: (Passed) 2017-05-25 - Reported enrolled [HR191 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-HR191-Enrolled.html
H.R. No. 191 |
|
||
WHEREAS, During World War I, the crumbling Ottoman Empire | ||
began a systematic campaign to eradicate its Armenian population, | ||
which then numbered more than two million; and | ||
WHEREAS, Armenians and other minority populations had | ||
contributed to the prosperity of the once-mighty empire for | ||
centuries, but as its borders shrank and its influence diminished, | ||
ethnic tensions flared; after the Ottomans entered World War I, | ||
their armies suffered heavy losses to Russian forces in the | ||
Caucasus, and Armenians in the region were accused of aiding the | ||
Russian victory; on April 24, 1915, the government arrested several | ||
hundred Armenian intellectuals, who were later executed; Armenian | ||
soldiers were disarmed and transferred to labor battalions, in | ||
which they were worked to death or killed outright; and | ||
WHEREAS, In the spring and summer of 1915, under the guise of | ||
"resettlement," Armenians were driven from their homes in Armenia | ||
and Anatolia and herded through the Syrian desert to concentration | ||
camps; many of the deportees died along the way from hunger, thirst, | ||
and exhaustion, while others were massacred; by 1918, an estimated | ||
one million Armenians had lost their lives, and survivors endured | ||
tremendous hardships as refugees; and | ||
WHEREAS, The end of the war brought a temporary respite, but | ||
in 1920, the atrocities resumed until the ultimate collapse of the | ||
empire and formation of the Republic of Turkey; as many as 1.5 | ||
million Armenians perished and today, only 3 million live in | ||
Armenia, a country that covers no more than 10 percent of the | ||
ancient Armenian homeland, while the Armenian diaspora numbers 8 to | ||
10 million in countries around the world, including the United | ||
States; and | ||
WHEREAS, In 1915, the governments of France, Great Britain, | ||
and Russia decried the slaughter of Armenians as "a crime against | ||
humanity"; American ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who led the | ||
humanitarian response, characterized the imperial deportation | ||
orders as "the death warrant to a whole race"; the persecution is | ||
considered genocide by most historians and has been officially | ||
acknowledged as such by numerous countries, among them France, | ||
Argentina, Greece, and Russia; this horrific event is a dark | ||
chapter in modern history, and the world must never forget the | ||
suffering of the Armenian people; now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas | ||
Legislature hereby recognize the Armenian genocide. | ||
______________________________ | ||
Speaker of the House | ||
I certify that H.R. No. 191 was adopted by the House on May | ||
19, 2017, by the following vote: Yeas 137, Nays 0, 5 present, not | ||
voting. | ||
______________________________ | ||
Chief Clerk of the House | ||