Vermont Armenian Genocide Recognition

A PROCLAMATION
VERMONT
April 24, 2004

WHEREAS, since 1915, April 24th of each year has been imprinted in the memory of the Armenian people worldwide, for it was then that the mass genocide of the Armenian  people  began  in  the  Ottoman Turkish Empire,  the  first  such genocide  in the  20th century, and 2004 marks  the  89 anniversary of the historic tragedy; and

WHEREAS, Armenian families were uprooted from their ancestral homeland, brutally exposed to all kinds of indignities with hundreds of thousands slain, resulting in more than half of the Armenian people killed; and

WHEREAS, Armenian families were uprooted from their ancestral homeland, brutally exposed to all kinds of indignities with hundreds of thousands slain, resulting in more than half of the Armenian people killed; and

WHEREAS, Armenian families were uprooted from their ancestral homeland, brutally exposed to all kinds of indignities with hundreds of thousands slain, resulting in more than half of the Armenian people killed; and

WHEREAS, recognition of the 89th 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 have greatly enriched our society through their leadership in business, agriculture, academia, government, and the arts; and

WHEREAS, our thoughts, offered in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915, will serve to remind governments of the world that persecution, torture, and killing must cease forever;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, James H. Douglas, Governor, do hereby proclaim April 24, 2004 as

ARMENIAN  MARTYRS DAY

in Vermont.

Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State of Vermont this 24th day of April, A.D. 2004.

(SIGNED)
Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs Neale F. Lunderville
Governor James H. Douglas

House Concurrent Resolution Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Start of the Armenian Genocide 
Vermont
Offered by:  Representatives Lenes of Shelburne and Greshin of Warren
Offered by: Senators Sears, Baruth, Balint, Benning, Campion, Collamore, Cummings, Flory, McCormack, Mullin, Pollina, Snelling, White, and Zuckerman

Whereas, from 1915 to 1923, the government of the Ottoman Empire persecuted and executed systematically an estimated 1.5 million Armenians; and

Whereas, this brutal mistreatment became known as the Armenian Genocide and, by 1923, it had resulted in the elimination of the Armenian population in Asia Minor and historic West Armenia; and

Whereas, the Armenian Genocide began on the night of April 24, 1915, when the Turkish government arrested more than 200 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople, the  Ottoman Empire’s capital city; and

Whereas, most of the prominent public figures of the Armenian community were summarily executed; and

Whereas, large numbers of Armenian civilians were forcibly deported to the Syrian desert, and many died either en route, at the hands of government-aligned gangs, or from dehydration and starvation in the desert; and

Whereas, in May 1915, the Allied Powers of France, Great Britain, and Russia issued a joint statement charging the government in Constantinople with committing crimes ‘‘against humanity and civilization,” the first time a government-to-government charge of this type was issued; and

Whereas, it is estimated that, by 1918, the Ottoman Empire’s brutal treatment of Armenians had resulted in the deaths of one million persons and made hundreds of thousands of others homeless and stateless refugees; and

Whereas, Raphael Lemkin, the initial drafter of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the originator of the term “genocide,” recognized the Armenian Genocide as the type of crime the United Nations should prevent through the establishment of international standards; and

Whereas, historians cite the Armenian Genocide as a forerunner of later human massacres, including the Holocaust, the Cambodian Killing Fields, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur; and

Whereas, on April 24, 2004, Governor James Douglas issued a proclamation recognizing the Armenian Genocide on the 89th anniversary of its initiation;

Now Therefore Be It Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:

That the General Assembly commemorates the 100th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide; and

Be It Further Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to the Armenian National Committee of Vermont.

(SIGNED)
Speaker of the House Shapleigh Smith Jr.
President of the Senate Philip B. Scott
Clerk, House of representatives Donald G. Milne