California State Assembly introduces resolution on Genocide recognition

PanARMENIAN.Net - California State Assembly Speaker John A. Perez on Thursday, Feb 20 introduced a resolution that reaffirms California’s strong position on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Asbarez reported.

The resolution calls on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide and urges Congress and President Obama to do the same.

This measure would designate the week of April 20 to 26, 2014, as “California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923,” and would memorialize the Congress and the President of the United States to observe the California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide by participating in the Armenian Genocide Commemorative Project.

According to text of the resolution AJR 35, “the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 was the first genocide of the 20th century, in which 1.5 million men, women, and children lost their lives at the hands of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in their attempt to systematically eliminate the Armenian race. In their 3,000 year historic homeland in Asia Minor, Armenians were subjected to severe and unjust persecution and brutality by the Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire before and after the turn of the 20th century, including widespread acts of destruction and murder during the period from 1894 to 1896, inclusive, and again in 1909.”

“Adolph 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?” Unlike other people and governments that have admitted and denounced the abuses and crimes of predecessor regimes, and despite the overwhelming proof of genocidal intent, the Republic of Turkey has inexplicably and adamantly denied the occurrence of the crimes against humanity committed by the Ottoman and Young Turk rulers, and those denials compound the grief of the few remaining survivors of the atrocities, desecrate the memory of the victims, and cause continuing pain to the descendants of the victims.”

“Leaders of nations with strategic, commercial, and cultural ties to the Republic of Turkey should be reminded of their duty to encourage Turkish officials to cease efforts to distort facts and deny the history of events surrounding the Armenian Genocide. The accelerated level and scope of denial and revisionism, coupled with the passage of time and the fact that very few survivors remain who can serve as reminders of indescribable brutality and tormented lives, compel a sense of urgency in efforts to solidify recognition of historical truth.”

“By consistently remembering and forcefully condemning the atrocities committed against the Armenians, and honoring the survivors as well as other victims of similar heinous conduct, we guard against repetition of such acts of genocide and provide the American public with a greater understanding of its heritage,” the resolution said.