April 19, 1990

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The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

In the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety

Resolutions on the Occasion of a Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923

Whereas, April 24, 1990 is being observed as a day of remembrance of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923; and

Whereas, one million five hundred thousand people of Armenian ancestry were victims of genocide perpetrated by the governments of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923; and

Whereas, at the outbreak of World War I, the Young Turk regime decide to deport the entire Armenian population of over two million to Syria and Mesopotamia; and

Whereas, Talaat Pasha, leader of the Young Turk Movement, was principal author of the plan to exterminate the Armenians; and

Whereas, the plan of genocide consisted of deporting all Armenians of whatever age or condition of health to the totally barren deserts of what is now Syria; and

Whereas, the Armenians were rounded up and brutally driven from their homes and their land, separated from families, robbed of everything they owned and stripped of all they carried with them; and

Whereas, thousands of Christian Armenians were tortured and murdered for refusing to accept Islam as their religion; and

Whereas, the atrocities inflicted on Armenians on the death marches to the Syrian desert has been viewed as the prototype for the Holocaust of World War II; and

Whereas, the present day Turkish Government has undertaken a policy of denial and distortion of the historical truth about the Armenian Genocide; and

Whereas, the Turkish Government's denial prevents an atonement by the Turkish People; and

Whereas, the Turkish Government's denial makes it an accessory to the Young Turks' crime against humanity, whose legacy Turkey today enjoys; and

Whereas, the massacre of Armenians who escaped deportation and remained in Turkey was called the "most colossal crime of all ages" by the examining American military missions's report to the United States Congress; and

Whereas, in a telegram sent by United States Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the Secretary of State, Morgenthau warned that "a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion"; therefore be it

Resolved, that the Massachusetts General Court acknowledges the contribution to our commonwealth and country by the citizens of Armenian origin on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923 and it calls upon the citizens of the Commonwealth of observe April 24, 1990, by remembering the one million five hundred thousand people of Armenian ancestry who lost their lives in the genocide of 1915-1923; and be it further

Resolved, that a copy of these resolutions be forwarded by the clerk of the House of Representatives to the Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts and the Armenian Rights Council.

House of Representatives, adopted, April 19, 1990.

Senate, adopted in concurrence, April 19, 1990.