HR1224 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1224 LRB099 21789 MST 48509 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The 20th Century has witnessed unspeakable acts of murder and chaos, from the Holocaust, to the massacres in Rwanda and Bosnia, the genocidal campaign against the Armenian people symbolizes one of the first in our modem age; and

WHEREAS, Between the years 1915-1923, nearly one and a half million Armenian men, women, and children were massacred by the Ottoman Turkish government; and

WHEREAS, The United Nations defines the term genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another; and

WHEREAS, The segregation and degradation of the minority Christian Armenian population by the Turkish government began with Ottoman rule in the mid-l800s; the brutality escalated during the reign of the Young Turks, immediately following the First World War; and

WHEREAS, In 1939, the monster, Adolf Hitler, cited the Armenian genocide as justification for the genocide he himself was about to lead, asking, "Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians."; and

WHEREAS, The attempted extermination and forced displacement of the Armenian people not only extinguished precious lives, but also uprooted a centuries-old culture from their ancient homeland; and

WHEREAS, The people of Armenia have witnessed the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great, fought the legions of Rome and Sassanid Persians, halted Arabian expansion, supplied emperors to the throne of Byzantium, became the first nation to adopt Christianity in 301 CE, and established their language's alphabet barely a century later in 406 CE; and

WHEREAS, A century ago this year, Armenian heritage came under threat once more, as thousands of their monasteries and churches were desecrated or destroyed, national institutions and schools, razed to the ground, and the surviving Armenian people, scattered across the world; and

WHEREAS, Despite the wreckage, the Armenian people endured, building a new and sovereign nation in the eastern half of their homeland; and

WHEREAS, The 21st Century world continues to face terrifying crimes against humanity even at this very hour, as forces of repression and barbarism seek to roll back the progress of our age; and

WHEREAS, These forces of terror include the Islamic State, Boko Haram, the regional tentacles of al-Qa'ida, al-Nusrah Front, al-Shabaab, Hizballah, and Hamas, along with far too many more; and

WHEREAS, The great champion and prophet of liberty, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. powerfully noted that, "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."; and

WHEREAS, We must learn and boldly speak of, the often heartbreaking but invaluable lessons of our common human past, as well as teach them to our children and our grandchildren in order for this world to finally be free of hostility and violence; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we, and all other people of human decency, speak today of the near annihilation of the Armenian people, and indeed of all those who continue suffering under the heel of tyranny across the world; and be it further

RESOLVED, That on this anniversary year of the Armenian genocide, we commemorate the nearly one and a half million precious lives lost and honor the rich, ancient heritage of the Armenian people by dedicating April 24th as the Day of Remembrance for the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.