BILL ANALYSIS Ó AJR 34 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AJR 34 (Achadjian, et al.) As Amended April 12, 2016 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Rules |11-0 |Gordon, Chang, | | | | |Brough, Cooley, | | | | |Gomez, Holden, Jones, | | | | |Mullin, Quirk, | | | | |Rodriguez, Waldron | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY: Would, among other things, designate the year of 2016 as "State of California Year of Commemoration of the 101st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 19151923," designate April 24, 2016, as "State of California Day of Commemoration of the 101st 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: AJR 34 Page 2 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 State of California has been at the forefront of encouraging and promoting a curriculum relating to human rights and genocide in order to empower future generations to prevent the recurrence of genocide. 5)The Armenian people, in this state and elsewhere, remain resolved and their spirit continues to thrive more than a century after their near annihilation. AJR 34 Page 3 FISCAL EFFECT: None Analysis Prepared by: Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800 FN: 0002747