May 20, 2008

TEXT OF PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, for eight years, from 1915-1923, more than 1.5 million Armenians living within the Ottoman Empire’s borders were killed; and

WHEREAS, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were forced to flee to foreign countries after being stripped of their possessions, their national identities and their homeland; and

WHEREAS, many Armenian-American in Manchester, in New Hampshire and throughout the country are descendents of these victims; and

WHEREAS, through this tragedy, and others like it, we must make and effort to confront those that seek to inflict unbearable destruction upon us and vow to never let the atrocities from our history become our future.

NOW, THEREFORE, I Frank C. Guinta, Mayor of the City of Manchester N.H. do hereby proclaim May 20, 2008, as the Armenian Genocide Remembrance in the city. I urge all citizens to recognized the tragedy that has affected the live of so many of Armenian descent and further urge citizens to work towards a future where such barbarism never happens again.

Given on this twentieth day of May, in the year of Our Lord two thousand and eight, and the independence of the United States of America, two-hundred and thirty-one.

Signed,
Frank C. Guinta