House Resolution No. 100 By Representative Moody
State Of Tennessee
April 21, 2015
Whereas, beginning on April 24, 1915, over 1.5 million Armenians became the victims of a genocide conceived and executed by the Ottoman Empire; and
Whereas, from 1915 to 1923, Armenians suffered untold agony and loss from brutal atrocities, including pogroms, deportations, forced death marches across Anatolia into the Syrian desert, starvation, crucifixions, kidnappings, and massacres en masse; and
Whereas, during the founding of modern Turkey, Armenians continued to be persecuted, and their towns-schools, businesses, churches, and homes-destroyed by Kemalist brigands under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; and
Whereas, other ancient Christian minorities, namely ethnic Assyrians and Greeks, were also greatly persecuted under the Ottoman Empire and by the party known as the Young Turks; and
Whereas, in 1943, Polish author Raphael Lemkin first coined the term “genocide” based on the systematic campaign executed by the Ottoman Turks to annihilate the entire Armenian population; and
Whereas, it is imperative that the historicity of this first major genocide of the 20th century not be dismissed, but acknowledged as fact; and
Whereas, the Armenian Genocide was recognized by the United States Government in 1951 and 1981, by the United States Congress in 1975 and 1984, by forty-four states in America, by twenty-one countries worldwide, and by major international organizations such as the United Nations, Holy See (Vatican City), World Council of Churches, International Association of Genocide Scholars, European Parliament, Anti-Defamation League, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Permanent People’s Tribunal; and
Whereas, Tennesseans-elected officials, celebrities, laypersons, and Governor Austin Peay-mobilized unprecedented relief aid during and after the Armenian Genocide to rescue Armenian refugees in the Middle East; and
Whereas, on April 24, 2015, Armenians and non-Armenians in Tennessee will observe the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by holding a solemn commemoration for the more than 1.5 million Armenians who suffered and died; and
Whereas, commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial is crucial to educating Tennesseans against the repetition of future genocides; now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, that we hereby join with those Armenians and non-Armenians in Tennessee as they commemorate April 24, 2015, as the official Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide Centennial.
(SIGNED)
Beth Hawell. Speaker of House Representatives
Debra Moody. Representative
