Iowa Armenian Genocide Recognition

Iowa legislators have recognized the Armenian Genocide on the state level. Gubernatorial proclamations as well as state and local legislation are provided below since 2007. If you know of other documents to be added to this list – old or new – please send a note to elizabeth@anca.org. We look forward to showcasing them.

Iowa citizens also played an active role in assisting Armenian Genocide survivors through the Congressionally mandated Near East Foundation, during the years 1915 – 1930. Learn more about their efforts below, through research prepared by the ANCA Western Region’s “America We Thank You” program.

And finally, review our snapshot of news coverage of the Armenian Genocide in Ohio press, as we spotlight three articles, prepared as part of the ANCA’s “Genocide Diary” project. Check back to the Genocide Diary’s Ohio page for new articles added on a monthly basis.

2017

A Proclamation
State of Iowa
April 24, 2017

WHEREAS, from 1915-1923 during the Armenian Genocide, one and one-half million ethnic Armenian men, women and children as well as over one million Greeks, Assyrians, Syriacs and others were massacred as part of the planned complete eradication of those indigenous communities by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during the first modern genocide that still requires justice; and,

WHEREAS, prior to the implementation of the Holocaust, in order to garner support from his followers, Adolf Hitler asked, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and,

WHEREAS, the Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945 – six million Jews were murdered; Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic or national reasons; and millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny; and,

WHEREAS, other cases of genocide include the killings in Cambodia in 1975, the massacres in Bosnia in 1992, the slaughter in Rwanda in 1994 and now in the 21st century, the displacements and deaths in Darfur as well as targeting of religious minorities by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Middle East; and,

WHEREAS, the United States House of Representatives has adopted H.Con.Res. 75, declaring the atrocities perpetrated by the ISIL against Christians, Yezidis and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide; and,

WHEREAS, by recognizing and consistently remembering the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and all cases of past and ongoing genocide, we help protect historic memory, ensure that similar atrocities do not occur again and remain vigilant against hatred, persecution and tyranny; and,

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Kim Reynolds, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim the month of October, 2017 as

ARMENIA AWARENESS MONTH

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I HAVE
HEREUNTO SUBSCRIBED MY NAME AND
CAUSED THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF
IOWA TO BE AFFIXED. DONE AT DES
MOINES THIS 24TH DAY OF AUGUST IN THE YEAR
OF OUR LORD TWO THOUSAND SEVENTEEN.

(SIGNED)

GOVERNOR OF IOWA KIM REYNOLDS
SECRETARY OF STATE PAUL D. PAT

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Iowa’s Support for Survivors of the Armenian Genocide

Iowa was a staunch supporter of Near East Relief (NER), the American- led campaign that quickly sparked an international response with its unprecedented humanitarian endeavor, mobilizing all segments of American citizenry including elected officials, celebrities and laypersons alike, to help rescue victims of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey from 1915-1930.

Iowa facilitated its NER efforts through its state office head quarters located at 521 Securities Building in Des Moines.

Clay County, Iowa, native Miss Glee Hastings was a dedicated volunteer of the NER who worked with the orphans in Armenia. To honor her efforts and continue the important relief work, Clay County residents established the “Glee Hastings Orphanage Fund.”

In February 1921, Miss Hastings reported the arrival of 2,000 blankets plus milk and bread for the appeal she coordinated noting her thanks, along with her concern that hers was only one of the hundreds of appeals for the starving Armenians.

Miss Hastings’ testimony is as follows: “Most of the refugees are country people with almost nothing except the clothes on their backs, stupefied and dazed by their misfortunes. Bread is given only to women and children at the rate of one-half loaf for a person, each day. The milk is reserved for the babies and the sick. The refugees sit around, huddled up against the walls women with dull, sad faces, little children that are blue and pinched with the cold, and too miserable and lifeless to cry.”

Read the complete fact sheet prepared by America We Thank You.

The Armenian Genocide in Iowa Press

Click here for more Armenian Genocide Articles in Ohio Press