BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AJR 2
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR
2 (Nazarian, et al.)
As Amended April 14, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+-----------------------|
|Rules |11-0 |Gordon, Chang, | |
| | |Burke, Campos, | |
| | |Cooley, Dodd, | |
| | |Jones, Mayes, | |
| | |Rodriguez, Waldron, | |
| | |Wood | |
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SUMMARY: 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,"
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. Specifically, this
resolution makes the following legislative findings:
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1) Armenians have resided in Asia Minor and the Caucasus for
approximately four millennia, and have a long and rich history
in the region, including the establishment of many kingdoms, and
despite Armenians' historic presence, stewardship, and autonomy
in the region, Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire and the
Republic of Turkey subjected Armenians to severe and unjust
persecution and brutality, including wholesale massacres
beginning in the 1890s.
2)The Armenian nation was subjected to a systematic and
premeditated genocide officially beginning on April 24, 1915, at
the hands of the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire
from 1915-1919 and continued at the hands of the Kemalist
Movement of Turkey from 1920-1923 whereby over 1.5 million
Armenian men, women, and children were slaughtered or marched to
their deaths in an effort to annihilate the Armenian nation in
the first genocide of modern times, while thousands of surviving
Armenian women and children were forcibly converted and
Islamized, and hundreds of thousands more were subjected to
ethnic cleansing during the period of the modern Republic of
Turkey from 1924-1937.
3)California is home to the largest Armenian-American population
in the United States, and Armenians living in California have
enriched our state through their leadership and contribution in
business, agriculture, academia, government, and the arts, many
of whom have family members who experienced firsthand the horror
and evil of the Armenian Genocide and its ongoing denial.
4)The Armenian people, in this state and elsewhere, remain
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resolved and their spirit continues to thrive a century after
their near annihilation.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
Analysis Prepared by:
Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800 FN: 0000162