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Legislative Request:
The ANCA calls on the U.S. House to pass the Armenian Genocide Education Act, H.R.7555, a bipartisan measure promoting greater public awareness and understanding of the history, lessons, consequences, and ongoing costs of the Armenian Genocide (1915-23).
What’s at Stake:
— The prevention of future genocides.
— Justice for the Armenian Genocide.
— The memory of millions of Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac, Aramean, Maronite and other Christians martyrs.
Why it Matters:
— Teaching the lessons of past genocides is vital to preventing future atrocities.
— There is insufficient educational material about the Armenian Genocide in school textbooks and lesson plans.
— American must counter the Turkish government’s aggressive global campaign of Armenian Genocide denial, including active and ongoing efforts to roll back U.S. recognition of this crime.
What it Does:
— This legislation – introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Gus Bilirakis – provides funding ($10 million over five years) for the Library of Congress to help educate Americans about the Armenian Genocide.
— H.R.7555 specifically cites the Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate state-sponsored mass murder, national dispossession, cultural erasure, and exile of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians, between 1915 and 1923.
Key Points:
— Genocide denial – if not challenged – will lead to renewed crimes against humanity.
— Americans must stand strong against Turkey’s ongoing denial of the Armenian Genocide.
— Passage of H.R.7555 will build upon Congressional and White House recognition of the Armenian Genocide and raise much-needed awareness of this crime against humanity.
— Much like the Never Again Act, which counters Holocaust denial, the Armenian Genocide Education Act counters hateful lies regarding the facts of a known case of genocide.
Background:
H.R.7555 builds upon the President’s (2021) recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the historic passage (2019) of H.Res.296 and S.Res.150 – resolutions that specifically established U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide and officially rejected any official U.S. association with the denial of this crime.
H.R.7555 powerfully counters discourse and propaganda that claims that Ottoman Turkey’s systematic and deliberate state-sponsored mass murder, national dispossession, cultural erasure, and exile of millions of Armenians and other Christians between 1915 and 1923 did not take place.
ANCA | anca.org | June 2022