Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Joint ResolutionNo. 2


Introduced by Assembly Members Nazarian, Achadjian,begin delete andend deletebegin insert Alejo, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Chang, Cháend insertbegin insertvez, Chiu, Chu, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Eggman, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gray, Hadley, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Obernolte, O’Donnell, Olson, Perea, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber,end insert Wilkbegin insert, and Williamsend insert

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(Principal coauthors: Senators Cannella, Hall, Lara, Liu, Mendoza, and Runner)

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December 1, 2014


Assembly Joint Resolution No. 2—Relative to the Armenian Genocide.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AJR 2, as amended, Nazarian. Armenian Genocide.

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This measure would, among other things, designate the year of 2015 as “State of California Year of Commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923,” designate April 24, 2015, as “State of California Day of Commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923,” urge the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and to work toward a just resolution, and would call upon the President of the United States and the United States Congress to formally and consistently reaffirm the historical truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted genocide.

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This measure would, among other things, designate the month of April 2015, as “California Month of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923,” and would call upon the President and Congress of the United States to formally and consistently recognize and reaffirm the historical truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted genocide, and would call upon the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and to work toward a just resolution.

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Fiscal committee: no.

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P2    1WHEREAS, Armenians have resided in Asia Minor and the
2Caucasus for approximately four millennia, and have a long and
3rich history in the region, including the establishment of many
4kingdoms, and despite Armenians’ historic presence, stewardship,
5and autonomy in the region, Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire
6and the Republic of Turkey subjected Armenians to severe and
7unjust persecution and brutality, including wholesale massacres
8beginning in the 1890s; and

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9WHEREAS, The Armenian nation was subjected to a systematic
10and premeditated genocide officially beginning on April 24, 1915,
11at the hands of the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire
12from 1915-1919 and continued at the hands of the Kemalist
13Movement of Turkey from 1920-1923 whereby over 1.5 million
14Armenian men, women, and children were slaughtered or marched
15to their deaths in an effort to annihilate the Armenian nation in
16the first genocide of modern times, while thousands of surviving
17Armenian women and children were forcibly converted and
18Islamized, and hundreds of thousands more were subjected to
19ethnic cleansing during the period of the modern Republic of
20Turkey from 1924-1937; and

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21WHEREAS, During the genocides of the Christians living in the
22Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, which occurred during
23the first one-half of the 20th century, 1.5 million men, women, and
24children of Armenian descent, and hundreds of thousands of
25Assyrians, Greeks, and other Christians, lost their lives at the
26hands of the Ottoman Turkish Empire and the Republic of Turkey,
27constituting one of the most atrocious violations of human rights
28in the history of the world; and

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29WHEREAS, These crimes against humanity also had the
30consequence of permanently removing all traces of the Armenians
P3    1and other targeted people from their historic homelands of more
2than four millennia, and enriching the perpetrators with the lands
3and other property of the victims of these crimes, including the
4usurpation of several thousand churches; and

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5WHEREAS, In response to the genocide and at the behest of
6President Woodrow Wilson and the United States State
7Department, the Near East Relief organization was founded, and
8became the first congressionally sanctioned American
9philanthropic effort created exclusively to provide humanitarian
10assistance and rescue to the Armenian nation and other Christian
11minorities from annihilation, who went on to survive and thrive
12outside of their ancestral homeland all over the world and
13specifically in this state; and

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14WHEREAS, Near East Relief succeeded, with the active
15participation of the citizens from this state, in delivering $117
16million of assistance, and saving more than one million refugees,
17including 132,000 orphans, between 1915 and 1930, by delivering
18food, clothing, and materials for shelter, setting up refugee camps,
19clinics, hospitals, and orphanages; and

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20WHEREAS, The Armenian nation survived the genocide despite
21the attempt by the Ottoman Empire and the modern Republic of
22Turkey to exterminate it; and

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23WHEREAS, Adolf Hitler, in persuading his army commanders
24that the merciless persecution and killing of Jews, Poles, and other
25people would bring no retribution, declared, “Who, after all,
26speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and

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27WHEREAS, The planning and implementation of genocide is
28indisputably recognized in international law as a crime against
29humanity and is punishable as such, yet has remained unpunished
30for nearly 100 years, as the government of Turkey is allowed with
31impunity to distort history and to deny the genocide and its
32consequences perpetrated both by its Ottoman predecessor and
33its own predecessor regimes despite international recognition of
34the Armenian Genocide by 23 countries, including the United
35States of America; and

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36WHEREAS, On November 4, 1918, immediately after the
37collapse of the Young Turk regime and before the founding of the
38Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923, the Ottoman
39Parliament considered a motion on the crimes committed by the
40Committee of Union and Progress (CUP): “A population of one
P4    1million people guilty of nothing except belonging to the Armenian
2nation were massacred and exterminated, including even women
3and children.” The Minister of Interior at the time, Fethi Bey,
4responded by telling the Parliament: “It is the intention of the
5government to cure every single injustice done up until now, as
6far as the means allow, to make possible the return to their homes
7of those sent into exile, and to compensate for their material loss
8as far as possible”; and

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9WHEREAS, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk made a historic admission
10in an interview published in the Los Angeles Examiner on August
111, 1926: “These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who
12should have been made accountable for the lives of millions of our
13Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven, en masse, from
14their homes and massacred”; and

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15WHEREAS, The Parliamentary Investigative Committee
16proceeded to collect relevant documents describing the actions of
17those responsible for the Armenian mass killings and turned them
18over to the Turkish Military Tribunal. CUP’s leading figures were
19found guilty of massacring Armenians and hanged or given lengthy
20prison sentences. The Turkish Military Tribunal requested that
21Germany extradite to Turkey the masterminds of the massacres
22who had fled the country. After German refusal, they were tried
23in absentia and sentenced to death; and

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24WHEREAS, Unlike other people and governments that have
25admitted and denounced the abuses and crimes of predecessor
26regimes, and despite the Turkish government’s earlier admissions
27and the overwhelming proof of genocidal intent, the Republic of
28Turkey inexplicably and adamantly has denied the occurrence of
29the crimes against humanity committed by the Ottoman and Young
30Turk rulers for many years, and continues to do so a full century
31since the first crimes constituting genocide occurred; and

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32WHEREAS, Those denials compound the grief of the few
33remaining survivors of the atrocities, desecrate the memory of the
34victims, cause continuing pain to the descendants of the victims,
35and deprive the surviving Armenian nation, both on individual
36and collective levels, of their ancestral land, property, culture,
37heritage, financial assets, and population growth; and

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38WHEREAS, The Republic of Turkey has escalated its
39international campaign of Armenian Genocide denial, maintained
40its blockade of Armenia, and increased its pressure on the small
P5    1but growing movement in Turkey acknowledging the Armenian
2Genocide and seeking justice for this systematic campaign of
3destruction of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, and other
4Christians upon their biblical-era homelands; and

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5WHEREAS, Those citizens of Turkey, both Armenian and
6non-Armenian, who continue to speak the truth about the Armenian
7Genocide, such as human rights activist and journalist Hrant Dink,
8continue to be silenced by violent means; and

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9WHEREAS, Leaders of nations with strategic, commercial, and
10cultural ties to the Republic of Turkey should be reminded of their
11duty to encourage Turkish officials to cease efforts to distort facts
12and deny the history of events surrounding the Armenian Genocide;
13and

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14WHEREAS, The failure of the international community to hold
15responsible nations accountable for crimes against humanity
16results in a travesty of justice and sets a negative precedent; and

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18WHEREAS, There is continued concern about the welfare of
19Christians in the Republic of Turkey, their right to worship and
20practice freely, and the legal status and condition of thousands of
21ancient Armenian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and other
22historical and cultural structures, sites, and antiquities in the
23Republic of Turkey; and

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24WHEREAS, The United States is on record as having officially
25recognized the Armenian Genocide in the United States
26government’s May 28, 1951, written statement to the International
27Court of Justice regarding the Reservations to the Convention on
28the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, through
29President Ronald Reagan’s April 22, 1981, Proclamation No.
304838, and by congressional legislation including House Joint
31Resolution 148 adopted on April 9, 1975, and House Joint
32Resolution 247 adopted on September 12, 1984; and

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33WHEREAS, Even prior to the Convention on the Prevention
34and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the United States has
35a record of having sought to justly and constructively address the
36consequences of the Ottoman Empire’s intentional destruction of
37the Armenian people, including through United States Senate
38Concurrent Resolution 12 adopted on February 9, 1916, United
39States Senate Resolution 359 adopted on May 11, 1920, and
40President Woodrow Wilson’s November 22, 1920, decision entitled,
P6    1“The Frontier between Armenia and Turkey,” which was issued
2as a binding arbitral award, yet has not been enforced to this date
3despite its legally binding status; and

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4WHEREAS, President Barack Obama entered office “calling
5for Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide” and on
6April 24, 2013, and similarly on April 24, 2014, he further stated,
7“A full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts is in all of our
8interests. Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a more
9just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with
10painful elements of the past”; and

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11WHEREAS, California is home to the largest
12Armenian-American population in the United States, and
13Armenians living in California have enriched our state through
14their leadership and contribution in business, agriculture,
15academia, government, and the arts, many of whom have family
16members who experienced firsthand the horror and evil of the
17Armenian Genocide and its ongoing denial; and

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18WHEREAS, Every person should be made aware and educated
19about the Armenian Genocide and other crimes against humanity,
20and this state has been at the forefront of encouraging and
21promoting a curriculum relating to human rights and genocide in
22order to empower future generations to prevent the recurrence of
23genocide; and

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24WHEREAS, April 24, 1915, is globally observed and recognized
25as the commencement of the Armenian Genocide and April 24,
262015, will mark the centennial anniversary since the
27commencement of the Armenian Genocide; and

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28WHEREAS, Armenians in this state and throughout the world,
29have not been provided with justice for the crimes perpetrated
30against the Armenian nation despite the fact that a century has
31passed since the crimes were first committed; and

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32WHEREAS, The Armenian people, in this state and elsewhere,
33remain resolved and their spirit continues to thrive a century after
34their near annihilation; now, therefore, be it

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35Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of
36the State of California, jointly,
That the Legislature
37hereby designates the year of 2015 as “State of California Year
38of Commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Armenian
39Genocide of 1915-1923” and in doing so, intends, through the
40enactment of legislation, that the Armenian Genocide is properly
P7    1commemorated and taught to its citizens and visitors through
2statewide educational and cultural events; and be it further

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3Resolved, That the Legislature hereby designates April 24,
42015, as “State of California Day of Commemoration of the
5Centennial Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923”;
6and be it further

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7Resolved, That the Legislature commends its conscientious
8educators who teach about human rights and genocide, and intends
9for them, through the enactment of legislation, to continue to
10enhance their efforts to educate students at all levels about the
11experience of the Armenians and other crimes against humanity;
12and be it further

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13Resolved, That the Legislature hereby commends the
14extraordinary service which was delivered by Near East Relief to
15the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and the Assyrian Genocide,
16including thousands of direct beneficiaries of American
17philanthropy who are the parents, grandparents, and
18great-grandparents of many Californian Armenians and Assyrians,
19and pledges its intent, through the enactment of legislation, to
20working with community groups, nonprofit organizations, citizens,
21state personnel, and the community at large to host statewide
22educational and cultural events; and be it further

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23Resolved, That the Legislature deplores the persistent,
24ongoing efforts by any person, in this country or abroad, to deny
25the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide; and be it further

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26Resolved, That the Legislature urges the Republic of Turkey
27to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and to work
28toward a just resolution, to honor its obligations under
29international treaties and human rights laws, to end all forms of
30religious discrimination and persecution, to return Christian
31church properties to their rightful owners, and to allow the owners
32and congregants of all churches to conduct their religious activities
33unhindered, including, but not limited to, prayer services and
34religious observances, education and training, community
35gatherings, and social services; and be it further

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36Resolved, That the Legislature respectfully calls upon the
37President of the United States and the United States Congress to
38act likewise and to formally and consistently reaffirm the historical
39truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people
40constituted genocide; and be it further

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P8    1Resolved, That the Legislature calls on the President of the
2United States to work toward equitable, constructive, stable, and
3durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic of
4Turkey’s full acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing
5consequences of the Armenian Genocide, and a fair, just, and
6comprehensive international resolution of this crime against
7humanity; and be it further

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8Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit
9copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the
10United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to
11the Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and
12Representative from California in the Congress of the United
13States, to the Governor of California, every member of the
14California State Legislature, the Superintendent of Public
15Instruction, and to the Turkish Ambassador to the United States.

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16WHEREAS, During the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, 1.5
17million men, women, and children of Armenian descent lost their
18lives at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in its attempt to
19systematically eliminate the Armenian race; and

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20WHEREAS, Despite Armenians’ historic presence, stewardship,
21and autonomy in the region, Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire
22subjected Armenians to severe and unjust persecution and brutality,
23including, but not limited to, widespread and wholesale massacres
24beginning in the 1890s, most notably the Hamidian Massacres
25from 1894 to 1896 and the Adana Massacre of 1909; and

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26WHEREAS, The earlier massacres and subsequent genocide of
27the Armenians constitute one of the most atrocious violations of
28human rights in the history of the world; and

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29WHEREAS, Adolph Hitler, in persuading his army commanders
30that the merciless persecution and killing of Jews, Poles, and other
31people would bring no retribution, declared, “Who, after all, speaks
32today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and

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33WHEREAS, Unlike other people and governments that have
34admitted and denounced the abuses and crimes of predecessor
35regimes, and despite the overwhelming proof of genocidal intent,
36the Republic of Turkey has inexplicably and adamantly denied the
37occurrence of the crimes against humanity committed by the
38Ottoman and Young Turk rulers. Those denials compound the
39grief of the few remaining survivors of the atrocities, desecrate
P9    1the memory of the victims, and cause continuing pain to the
2descendants of the victims; and

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3WHEREAS, Leaders of nations with strategic, commercial, and
4cultural ties to the Republic of Turkey should be reminded of their
5duty to encourage Turkish officials to cease efforts to distort facts
6and deny the history of events surrounding the Armenian Genocide;
7and

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8WHEREAS, The Republic of Turkey has escalated its
9international campaign of Armenian Genocide denial, maintained
10its blockade of Armenia and increased its pressure on the small
11but growing movement in Turkey acknowledging the Armenian
12Genocide and seeking justice for this systematic campaign of
13destruction of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Pontians,
14Syriacs, and other Christians upon their biblical-era homelands;
15and

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16WHEREAS, Those citizens of Turkey, both Armenian and
17non-Armenian, who continue to speak the truth about the Armenian
18Genocide, such as human rights activist and journalist Hrant Dink,
19continue to be silenced by violent means; and

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20WHEREAS, The accelerated level and scope of denial and
21revisionism, coupled with the passage of time and the fact that
22very few survivors remain who can serve as reminders of the
23indescribable brutality and the lives that were tormented, compel
24a sense of urgency in efforts to solidify recognition of historical
25truth; and

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26WHEREAS, The United States is on record as having officially
27recognized the Armenian Genocide in the United States
28government’s May 28, 1951, written statement to the International
29Court of Justice regarding the Reservations to the Convention on
30the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, through
31President Ronald Reagan’s April 22, 1981, Proclamation No. 4838,
32and by Congressional legislation including United States House
33of Representatives Joint Resolution 148 adopted on April 9, 1975,
34and United States House of Representatives Joint Resolution 247
35adopted on September 12 , 1984; and

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36WHEREAS, Even prior to the Convention on the Prevention
37and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the United States has
38a record of having sought to justly and constructively address the
39consequences of the Ottoman Empire’s intentional destruction of
40the Armenian people, including through United States Senate
P10   1Concurrent Resolution 12 adopted on February 9, 1916, United
2States Senate Resolution 359 adopted on May 11, 1920, and
3President Woodrow Wilson’s November 22, 1920, decision
4entitled, The Frontier between Armenia and Turkey; and

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5WHEREAS, By consistently remembering and forcefully
6condemning the atrocities committed against the Armenians, and
7honoring the survivors as well as other victims of similar heinous
8conduct, we guard against repetition of such acts of genocide and
9provide the American public with a greater understanding of
10history; and

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11WHEREAS, There is continued concern about the welfare of
12Christians in the Republic of Turkey, their right to worship and
13practice their faith freely, and the legal status and condition of
14churches and other places of worship, monasteries, schools,
15hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious
16properties in the Republic of Turkey; and

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17WHEREAS, California is home to the largest
18Armenian-American population in the United States, and
19Armenians living in California have enriched our state through
20their leadership and contribution in business, agriculture, academia,
21government, and the arts; and

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22WHEREAS, The State of California has been at the forefront
23of encouraging and promoting a curriculum relating to human
24rights and genocide in order to empower future generations to
25prevent the recurrence of genocide; and

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26WHEREAS, On April 24, 2014, President Obama stated, “A
27full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts is in all of our
28interests. Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation
29for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and
30reckoning with painful elements of the past”; and

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31WHEREAS, President Obama entered office having stated his
32“firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an
33allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a
34widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of
35historical evidence” and affirmed his record of “calling for
36Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide”; and

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37WHEREAS, The United States’ national interests in establishing
38equitable, constructive, stable, and durable relations between
39Armenians and Turks cannot be meaningfully advanced by
40circumventing or otherwise seeking to avoid the central political,
P11   1legal, security, and moral issue between these two nations:
2Turkey’s denial of truth and justice for the Armenian Genocide;
3and

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4WHEREAS, The 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
5signifies a global demand for justice by Armenians worldwide and
6all people of good will and this centennial marks one of the 20th
7century’s greatest crimes against humanity, when in 1915, the
8Turkish Government began a premeditated and systematic
9campaign to uproot the Armenian population from its ancestral
10homeland and slaughter 1.5 million defenseless men, women, and
11children; now, therefore, be it

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12Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
13California, jointly,
That the Legislature hereby designates the
14month of April 2015, as “California Month of Remembrance for
15the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923”; and be it further

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16Resolved, That the Legislature commends its conscientious
17educators who teach about human rights and genocide; and be it
18further

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19Resolved, That the Legislature respectfully calls upon the
20President and Congress of the United States to act likewise and to
21formally and consistently recognize and reaffirm the historical
22truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people
23constituted genocide; and be it further

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24Resolved, That the Legislature calls on the President of the
25United States to work toward equitable, constructive, stable, and
26durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic of
27Turkey’s full acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing
28consequences of the Armenian Genocide, and a fair, just, and
29comprehensive international resolution of this crime against
30humanity; and be it further

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31Resolved, That the Legislature declares that it deplores the
32persistent, ongoing efforts by any person, in this country or abroad,
33to deny the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide; and be it
34further

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35Resolved, That the Legislature calls upon the Republic of Turkey
36to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and to work
37toward a just resolution; and be it further

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38Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
39of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
40States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
P12   1Majority Leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative
2from California in the Congress of the United States, the Governor,
3and the Turkish Ambassador to the United States.

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