BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AJR 34
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR
34 (Achadjian, et al.)
As Amended April 12, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Rules |11-0 |Gordon, Chang, | |
| | |Brough, Cooley, | |
| | |Gomez, Holden, Jones, | |
| | |Mullin, Quirk, | |
| | |Rodriguez, Waldron | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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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
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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 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
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FISCAL EFFECT: None
Analysis Prepared by:
Nicole Willis / RLS. / (916) 319-2800 FN:
0002747