April 23, 1990

STATE OF ALASKA

THE LEGISLATURE
1990
Source SR-20
Legislative Resolve No. 13

Relating to the Armenian genocide.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:

WHEREAS 1990 is the 75th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which was conceived by the Turkish government and implemented from 1915 to 1923 and which resulted in the extermination of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women, and children, the deportation of an additional 500,000 survivors, and the elimination of a 2,500-year Armenian presence in Armenia's historic homeland; and

WHEREAS the Armenian genocide is well documented in the archives of the United States, Austria, France, Germany, and Great Britain; and

WHEREAS Henry Morgenthau, a former United States Ambassador to Turkey, organized and led protests by all nations, including allies of Turkey, over Turkey's program of race extermination; and

WHEREAS an organization known as Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress, contributed approximately $113,000,000 between 1915 and 1930 to aid the Armenian genocide survivors; and

WHEREAS 132,000 Armenian orphans became foster children of Americans; and

WHERAS the fact of the Armenian genocide was confirmed in United States Senate Resolution 359 dated May 13, 1920, which stated in part, "the testimony adduced at the hearings conducted by the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered"; and

WHEREAS the fact of the Armenian genocide was also confirmed by United States House Resolution 148, which stated in part, "April 24, 1975, is hereby designated as 'National Day of Remembrance of Man's Inhumanity to Man', and the President of the United States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a day of remembrance for all victims of genocide, especially those of Armenian ancestry who succumbed to the genocide perpetrated in 1915, and in whose memory this date is commemorated by all Armenians and their friends throughout the world"; and

WHEREAS former President Carter in a May 16, 1978, speech at the White House stated in part, "I feel very deeply that I, as President, ought to make sure that this (Armenian genocide) is never forgotten"; and

WHEREAS the United States, during the March 14 and 16, 1979, sessions of the United National Commission on Human Rights, voted to support paragraph 30 of a report entitled "Study of the Questions of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" that stated, "Passing to the modern era, one may note the existence of relatively full documentation dealing with the massacres of Armenians"; and

WHEREAS the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, an independent federal agency, unanimously resolved on April 30, 1981, that, "the Armenian genocide should be included in the Holocaust Museum Memorial"; and

WHEREAS former President Ronald Reagan in proclamation 4838, dated April 22, 1981, stated in part, "like the genocide of the Armenians before it, the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it, and like too many other persecutions of too many other peoples, the lessons of the holocaust must never be forgotten"; and

WHEREAS the fact of the Armenian genocide has been documented, affirmed, and reaffirmed for over six decades;

BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Senate that the Senate recognizes these historical events and condemns genocide in any form.

COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George Bush, President of the United States; to the Honorable Dan Quayle, Vice-President of the United States and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Thomas Foley, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable George Mitchell, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Richard Gephardt, Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Bob Dole, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Robert Michel, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable George Deukmejian, Governor of California; and the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowsky, U.S. Senators, the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.