2024 -- S 3096

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LC006187

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2024

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

PROCLAIMING MAY 19TH OF 2024 AS "GREEK PONTIAN GENOCIDE

REMEMBRANCE DAY" IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     

     Introduced By: Senators Raptakis, Burke, Gallo, Tikoian, Euer, Cano, Kallman,
DeLuca, LaMountain, and F. Lombardi

     Date Introduced: May 28, 2024

     Referred To: Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar

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

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

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

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same autonomy and equality; and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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mass genocide of the 20th century, and the Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by

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the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, and resulted in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000

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Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, and the remaining

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500,000 survived but were expelled from their homes; and

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

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

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

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and are never committed again; and

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

 

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

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

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oppressed people around the world; and

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     WHEREAS, The year 2024 will be memorialized throughout the world as the symbolic

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105th Anniversary of the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks. May we never forget the brutality the

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

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lessons from the past so that the history of the Pontian Genocide, and all Genocides, never happen

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again; now, therefore be it

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     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby joins the Greek-

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American community on May 19th of each year in a solemn commemoration of the Pontian

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Genocide of 1914-1922; 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 Gus Tsiflidis, President the Pan-Pontian

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Federation of USA and Canada, and Georgios Gialtouridis of the Pontian Society "Panagia

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Soumela" Boston, and Ioannis Konstantatos, Mayor of the Municipality of Ellinikon-

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Argyroupolis, Athens, Greece.

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