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CR: Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923...

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  • CR: Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923...

    Congressional Record
    29 June 2005
    Whereas the 20th century was the bloodiest in history and saw the
    application of the tools of the modern industrial state to mass killings
    which have come to be called genocide; (Introduced in House)

    HCON 195 IH
    109th CONGRESS
    1st Session
    H. CON. RES. 195
    Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, urging the Government of
    the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the culpability of its predecessor
    state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide and engage in
    rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people, and
    supporting the accession of Turkey to the European Union if Turkey meets
    certain criteria.
    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
    June 29, 2005
    Mr. SCHIFF submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred
    to the Committee on International Relations

    CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
    Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, urging the Government of
    the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the culpability of its predecessor
    state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide and engage in
    rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people, and
    supporting the accession of Turkey to the European Union if Turkey meets
    certain criteria.
    Whereas the 20th century was the bloodiest in history and saw the
    application of the tools of the modern industrial state to mass killings
    which have come to be called genocide;
    Whereas 20th century genocides have included the Armenian Genocide, the
    Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, and the Rwandan Genocide;
    Whereas the Government of Sudan is currently engaged in a genocide against
    the people of Darfur, Sudan;
    Whereas the consequences of these genocides continue to affect all humanity,
    especially those who have been its victims;
    Whereas only by acknowledging responsibility and reconciling with the
    victims can a nation or people that committed genocide fully return to the
    community of nations;
    Whereas the Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century;
    Whereas the Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman
    Empire from 1915 to 1923, prior to the establishment of the Republic of
    Turkey;
    Whereas in August 1914, the Ottoman Government formed a paramilitary
    organization called the Special Organization;
    Whereas the Special Organization created units called `butcher battalions',
    which were made up of violent criminals released from prison, to carry out
    the extermination of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire;
    Whereas in February 1915, the Ottoman Government ordered Armenian men
    serving in the army disarmed and organized into forced labor groups;
    Whereas on the night of April 23-24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian
    intellectuals and community leaders were summarily arrested in
    Constantinople;
    Whereas this was the first of a series of roundups of Armenian politicians,
    priests, scientists, lawyers, doctors, and writers of the Ottoman Empire,
    most of whom were killed soon after;
    Whereas the first mass deportations began in late March 1915 in the region
    of Cilicia, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, according to an extensive
    plan of deportation and elimination of the Armenian population of the
    Ottoman Empire that was prepared by Talat Pasha, the head of the government;
    Whereas notices of deportation were posted in public places and the news
    announced publicly in the streets of Armenian towns and villages;
    Whereas the Ottoman Government's campaign resulted in the deportation of
    nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were
    killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which
    succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in
    their historic homeland;
    Whereas there are numerous contemporaneous documentations of the Ottoman
    Government's campaign against the Armenians, including extensive accounts in
    Western newspapers and government documents in the national archives of
    Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, and the
    Vatican;
    Whereas this documentation unequivocally describes the systematic murder of
    the Armenian people and the destruction of Armenian life within the Ottoman
    Empire;
    Whereas Henry Morgenthau Sr., the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman
    Empire, sent a cable to the United States State Department in 1915:
    `Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and
    from harrowing reports of eye witnesses [sic] it appears that a campaign of
    race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against
    rebellion.';
    Whereas Abram Elkus, who succeeded Morgenthau as United States Ambassador in
    1916, sent a cable to Washington that the Ottoman Turks were continuing an
    `. . . unchecked policy of extermination through starvation, exhaustion, and
    brutality of treatment';
    Whereas in 1920, the Communists came to power in Armenia following an
    invasion by the Red Army;
    Whereas Armenia was part of the Soviet Union for the next 70 years;
    Whereas the Republic of Armenia is working toward democracy, the rule of
    law, and a viable free market economy since obtaining its freedom from
    Soviet rule in 1991;
    Whereas the Republic of Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe, the
    Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the North Atlantic
    Treaty Organization's Partnership for Peace;
    Whereas the Republic of Armenia is a friend and ally of the United States;
    Whereas the modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923;
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey abolished Ottoman institutions, including the
    sultanate and caliphate, and underwent a period of modernization and
    westernization;
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey has been a long-standing member of numerous
    international organizations, including the Council of Europe, the North
    Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Organization for Security and
    Cooperation in Europe;
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey is a friend and ally of the United States;
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey, because of its position at the crossroads of
    Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East, is well positioned
    to play a leading role in shaping developments in Europe and beyond;
    Whereas the United States has an interest in the stability and economic
    development of Turkey and the Caucasus region;
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey desires to join the European Union;
    Whereas the European Union and the Republic of Turkey will begin accession
    talks in October 2005;
    Whereas former Secretary of State Colin Powell welcomed the announcement of
    accession talks in December 2004 by saying that the United States is
    `confident that the accession process, and Turkey's eventual membership in
    the European Union, will bring great benefits to Turkey and to the European
    Union . . . [t]he Turkish people have much to look forward to . . . [a]
    Turkey that is firmly anchored in Europe and sharing European values will be
    a positive force for prosperity and democracy . . . [t]his is good for
    Turkey, for the broader European region, and for the United States, and that
    is why successive United States administrations have consistently supported
    Turkey's European aspirations';
    Whereas the European Union in 1993 established criteria for membership for
    Central and Eastern European countries that require that the candidate
    country must have achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy,
    the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities,
    the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to
    cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union, and the
    ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adherence to the
    aims of political, economic, and monetary union;
    Whereas Republic of Turkey is making progress in many of these areas, as
    reflected in the decision to open accession negotiations;
    Whereas in order to meet the accession criteria regarding the respect for
    and treatment of minorities, the Republic of Turkey must acknowledge the
    culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian
    Genocide;
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey has consistently refused to acknowledge the
    culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian
    Genocide;
    Whereas the European Parliament passed a resolution in June 1987 stating
    that the killing of `Armenians living in the territory of the Ottoman Empire
    constitute genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the Prevention
    and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the United Nations
    General Assembly on 9 December 1948';
    Whereas in the 1987 Resolution the European Parliament stated that `the
    refusal by the present Turkish Government to acknowledge the genocide
    against the Armenian people committed by [the Ottoman] government, [is] an
    insurmountable obstacle to consideration of the possibility of Turkey's
    accession to the Community';
    Whereas the European Parliament, in a resolution passed in November 2000 on
    Turkey's progress toward accession to the European Union, called upon Turkey
    `to give fresh support to the Armenian minority, as an important part of
    Turkish society, in particular by public recognition of the genocide which
    that minority suffered before the establishment of the modern state of
    Turkey';
    Whereas the European Parliament passed a resolution in February 2002
    reiterating its recognition of the Armenian Genocide and noting `that the
    Turkish regime after the First World War had several of those responsible
    for the genocide severely punished';
    Whereas the European Parliament, in its December 2004 parliamentary report
    on Turkey's progress toward accession to the European Union, urged Turkey to
    `promote the process of reconciliation with the Armenian people by
    acknowledging the genocide' and called on the European Council and
    Commission to demand that Turkey `formally acknowledge the historic reality'
    of the Genocide;
    Whereas the national parliaments of several members of the European Union
    and a number of other national parliaments have passed resolutions
    recognizing the Armenian Genocide;
    Whereas in recent years there has been an increasing willingness of Turkish
    academics, journalists, and others to openly discuss the Armenian Genocide,
    but this has often been met with hostility by the Government of the Republic
    of Turkey;
    Whereas a group of historians organized and scheduled an academic conference
    relating to the Armenian Genocide to take place starting June 1, 2005, at
    Bosporus University in Istanbul, but the Government of the Republic of
    Turkey successfully pressured the university to cancel the conference; and
    Whereas the Republic of Turkey's acknowledgement of the actions of the
    Ottoman Government, including the terrible tragedy of the Armenian Genocide,
    will herald a new chapter in the history of the region and usher in a new
    era of economic, social, and political progress: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That
    Congress--
    (1) commemorates the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923;
    (2) calls upon the President to commemorate the victims of the Armenian
    Genocide on behalf of the people and Government of the United States;
    (3) calls upon the Government of the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the
    culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian
    Genocide;
    (4) calls upon the Government of the Republic of Turkey to promote
    rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people and
    realize a just resolution;
    (5) supports the accession to the European Union of the Republic of Turkey
    if Turkey--
    (A) acknowledges the culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman
    Empire for the Armenian Genocide;
    (B) pursues rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian
    people; and
    (C) meets the other criteria for accession as determined by the European
    Union;
    (6) calls upon the European Union to look with favor upon any actions by the
    Government of the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the culpability of its
    predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide and engage
    in rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people;
    (7) stands ready to assist the Republic of Turkey and the Republic of
    Armenia and the Armenian people in this process; and
    (8) calls upon the President, the Secretary of State, the European Union,
    and others to assist the Republic of Turkey and the Republic of Armenia and
    the Armenian people in this process.
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