res24217

R 217

2024 -- S 3005
Enacted 04/23/2024

S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N

PROCLAIMING APRIL 24, 2024, AS "ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY" TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915 TO 1923, AND IN HONOR OF ARMENIAN-AMERICANS

Introduced By: Senators Tikoian, Gallo, Raptakis, F. Lombardi, Bissaillon, Burke, Zurier, Euer, Felag, and Britto

Date Introduced: April 23, 2024

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; and

WHEREAS, On April 24, 2021, United States President Joe Biden stated, "…we

remember the lives of all those who have died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and

recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring"; and

WHEREAS, In 1918, after the fall of the Russian Empire, the Azerbaijan Democratic

Republic and the First Republic of Armenia both declared independence; however, shortly

thereafter, they became part of the Soviet Union. The modern Republic of Azerbaijan once again

proclaimed its independence in August of 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the USSR.

Within its borders, however, the predominantly Armenian enclave known as the Republic of

Artsakh officially voted to become part of Armenia; and

WHEREAS, Azerbaijan sought to suppress the separatist movement, while Armenia

backed it. Turkey has close ties to Azerbaijan and was the first nation to recognize Azerbaijan's

independence in 1991. In 1993, Turkey, in addition to engaging in numerous hostilities, shut its

border with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan during the war over the Republic of Artsakh; and

WHEREAS, In Turkey's continuing aggression and genocide of Armenians that began

more than 100 years ago, the 2020 unprovoked war between Azerbaijan, with military support

provided by Turkey, and the Republic of Artsakh resulted in Artsakh being forced to return many

of the surrounding territories it had occupied for millennia; and

WHEREAS, Beginning in May of 2021, Azerbaijan has been making armed incursions

into, and taking lands within, Armenia's internationally recognized borders including in the

Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces; and

WHEREAS, In March through early April of 2022, following several days of escalated

tensions, Azerbaijan’s military open fired on Armenian military posts along the western part of

the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, and days later, shelled various villages, mostly located along the

eastern border of Artsakh; and

WHEREAS, Currently, there are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and

Azerbaijan, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has continued to ignite clashes and casualties;

and

WHEREAS, On January 1, 2024, when faced with the prospect of rule by Azerbaijan,

more than one hundred thousand people, 80 percent of Nagorno-Karabakh's primarily Armenian

population, fled to Armenia in one week; and

WHEREAS, Most recently, Azerbaijan's President has stated that opening the Zangezur

corridor, which is the Armenian territory separating Azerbaijan from its exclave, Nakhchivan, is a

priority; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby recognizes April 24,

2024, as "Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day" in the State of Rhode Island; and be it further

RESOLVED, That this Senate hereby 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 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

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

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Honorable Joseph Biden, President of the

United States, the Rhode Island Congressional Delegation, the 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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LC005731

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