HR0765 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0765 LRB101 20516 MST 70118 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Assyrians, an ethnic minority group, are the indigenous people of Mesopotamia and have lived in the Middle East since ancient times, including in what is today Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria; and

WHEREAS, Assyrians, also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs, today live around the world, including over 600,000 in the United States and over 34,000 in Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Between 1914 and 1923, the Assyrian Genocide occurred, during which the Ottoman Empire murdered over 300,000 Assyrian men, women, and children by methods that included mass executions, death marches, torture, and starvation; and

WHEREAS, During the Assyrian Genocide, also known as the Seyfo Genocide, the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies also systematically raped and enslaved Assyrian women and girls, forced the Assyrians from their ancestral lands, and pillaged and destroyed their communities; and

WHEREAS, The massacre of over two million Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and other Christian and religious minority populations represented the final culmination of a series of violent persecutions dating back to the late 1800s; and

WHEREAS, 2020 marks the 105th anniversary of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides of 1915, which were part of the planned eradication of those indigenous communities by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, yet to this day, Turkey has still not recognized these genocides; and

WHEREAS, The denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, maintaining impunity for the perpetrators of these atrocities and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides; and

WHEREAS, The resilience and endurance of the Assyrian people is commendable and praiseworthy, despite being victims of an ethnocide that the Islamic State continues today; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the Assyrian Genocide of 1915 as a genocide and reprehensible crime against humanity and honor the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Assyrians who were murdered during the Assyrian Genocide of 1915; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we declare August 7, 2020 as "Assyrian Remembrance Day" in the State of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the Assyrian National Council of Illinois and the Assyrian American Association of Chicago.