| R 299 |
| 2025 -- S 1080 Enacted 05/15/2025 |
| S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N |
| PROCLAIMING MAY 19TH OF 2025 AS "GREEK AND PONTIC GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY" IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND |
Introduced By: Senators Raptakis, Gallo, and Tikoian |
| Date Introduced: May 15, 2025 |
| 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 1913 until 1923, in a systematic attempt to exterminate the entire |
| Greek population in Pontus, Smyrna, Asia Minor, and Eastern Thrace of the Ottoman Empire |
| took place. The Ottoman Turks directed the killing of 353,000 Pontian and over one million |
| Anatolian and Asia Minor 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 Neo Turks engaged in forced relocation, death |
| marches, starvation, slaughter, rape, forced conversion to Islam, conscription into labor |
| battalions, arbitrary executions, and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and |
| religious monuments to ethnically cleanse the Greek population and perpetrate the first mass |
| genocide of the 20th century. Furthermore, 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 Greek |
| 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, in order 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, The year 2025 will be memorialized throughout the world as the symbolic |
| 106th 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 in order that the history of the Greek Genocide, and all Genocides, never |
| happen again; now, therefore be it |
| RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby joins the Greek- |
| American community on May 19th of each year in a solemn commemoration of the Greek and |
| Pontic Genocide of 1913-1923; 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 Miltiadis Tsavdaridis, President of the Pan- |
| Pontian Federation of the USA and Canada. |
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| LC002382 |
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