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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The 20th Century has witnessed unspeakable acts of
3murder and chaos, from the Holocaust, to the massacres in
4Rwanda and Bosnia, the genocidal campaign against the Armenian
5people symbolizes one of the first in our modem age; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Between the years 1915-1923, nearly one and a half
7million Armenian men, women, and children were massacred by the
8Ottoman Turkish government; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The United Nations defines the term genocide as
10any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in
11whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious
12group, including killing members of the group; causing serious
13bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately
14inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
15about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing
16measures intended to prevent births within the group; or
17forcibly transferring children of the group to another; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The segregation and degradation of the minority
19Christian Armenian population by the Turkish government began
20with Ottoman rule in the mid-l800s; the brutality escalated
21during the reign of the Young Turks, immediately following the
22First World War; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In 1939, the monster, Adolf Hitler, cited the
2Armenian genocide as justification for the genocide he himself
3was about to lead, asking, "Who after all, speaks today of the
4annihilation of the Armenians."; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The attempted extermination and forced
6displacement of the Armenian people not only extinguished
7precious lives, but also uprooted a centuries-old culture from
8their ancient homeland; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The people of Armenia have witnessed the eastern
10conquests of Alexander the Great, fought the legions of Rome
11and Sassanid Persians, halted Arabian expansion, supplied
12emperors to the throne of Byzantium, became the first nation to
13adopt Christianity in 301 CE, and established their language's
14alphabet barely a century later in 406 CE; and
 
15    WHEREAS, A century ago this year, Armenian heritage came
16under threat once more, as thousands of their monasteries and
17churches were desecrated or destroyed, national institutions
18and schools, razed to the ground, and the surviving Armenian
19people, scattered across the world; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Despite the wreckage, the Armenian people
21endured, building a new and sovereign nation in the eastern

 

 

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1half of their homeland; and
 
2    WHEREAS, The 21st Century world continues to face
3terrifying crimes against humanity even at this very hour, as
4forces of repression and barbarism seek to roll back the
5progress of our age; and
 
6    WHEREAS, These forces of terror include the Islamic State,
7Boko Haram, the regional tentacles of al-Qa'ida, al-Nusrah
8Front, al-Shabaab, Hizballah, and Hamas, along with far too
9many more; and
 
10    WHEREAS, The great champion and prophet of liberty, Dr.
11Martin Luther King Jr. powerfully noted that, "He who passively
12accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to
13perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against
14it is really cooperating with it."; and
 
15    WHEREAS, We must learn and boldly speak of, the often
16heartbreaking but invaluable lessons of our common human past,
17as well as teach them to our children and our grandchildren in
18order for this world to finally be free of hostility and
19violence; therefore, be it
 
20    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
21NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that

 

 

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1we, and all other people of human decency, who speak today of
2the near annihilation of the Armenian people, and indeed of all
3those who continue suffering under the heel of tyranny across
4the world; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That on this lOOth anniversary year of the
6Armenian genocide, we commemorate the nearly one and a half
7million precious lives lost and honor the rich, ancient
8heritage of the Armenian people by dedicating April 24th, 2015
9as the Day of Remembrance for the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian
10Genocide of 1915.