April 20, 2004

WHEREAS, one and one-half-million Christian Armenian men, women, and children were the victims of a brutal genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government from 1915 to 1923; and

WHEREAS, the Armenian genocide and massacres of Armenian people have been recognized as an attempt to eliminate all traces of a thriving and noble civilization over 3,000 years old; and

WHEREAS, recognition of the eighty-ninth anniversary of this genocide is crucial to guarding against the repetition of future genocide and educating people about the atrocities connected to these horrific events; and

WHEREAS, Armenian-Americans living in Idaho have greatly enriched our state through their leadership in business, agriculture, academia, government and the arts;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2004, to be

IDAHO DAY OF REMEMBERANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915-1923

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Idaho at the Capitol in Boise on this twentieth day of April in the year of our Lord two-thousand and four and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred twenty-eighth and of the Statehood of Idaho the one hundred fourteenth.

DIRK KEMPTHORNE
GOVERNOR

BEN YSURSA
SECRETARY OF STATE