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[Get Real!]

IV
110TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 106
Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United
States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning
issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented
in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 30, 2007
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. RADANOVICH, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KNOLLENBERG,
Mr. SHERMAN, and Mr. MCCOTTER) submitted the following resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy
of the United States reflects appropriate understanding
and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights,
ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United
States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and
for other purposes.
Resolved, 1
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 2
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Affirmation of 3
the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Reso- 4
lution’’. 5
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•HRES 106 IH
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
The House of Representatives finds the following: 2
(1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and 3
carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 4
1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 5
2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, 6
women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors 7
were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded 8
in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of 9
Armenians in their historic homeland. 10
(2) On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, Eng- 11
land, France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement 12
explicitly charging for the first time ever another 13
government of committing ‘‘a crime against human- 14
ity’’. 15
(3) This joint statement stated ‘‘the Allied Gov- 16
ernments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte 17
that they will hold personally responsible for these 18
crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as 19
well as those of their agents who are implicated in 20
such massacres’’. 21
(4) The post-World War I Turkish Government 22
indicted the top leaders involved in the ‘‘organization 23
and execution’’ of the Armenian Genocide and in the 24
‘‘massacre and destruction of the Armenians’’. 25
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•HRES 106 IH
(5) In a series of courts-martial, officials of the 1
Young Turk Regime were tried and convicted, as 2
charged, for organizing and executing massacres 3
against the Armenian people. 4
(6) The chief organizers of the Armenian Geno- 5
cide, Minister of War Enver, Minister of the Interior 6
Talaat, and Minister of the Navy Jemal were all 7
condemned to death for their crimes, however, the 8
verdicts of the courts were not enforced. 9
(7) The Armenian Genocide and these domestic 10
judicial failures are documented with overwhelming 11
evidence in the national archives of Austria, France, 12
Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, 13
the Vatican and many other countries, and this vast 14
body of evidence attests to the same facts, the same 15
events, and the same consequences. 16
(8) The United States National Archives and 17
Record Administration holds extensive and thorough 18
documentation on the Armenian Genocide, especially 19
in its holdings under Record Group 59 of the United 20
States Department of State, files 867.00 and 21
867.40, which are open and widely available to the 22
public and interested institutions. 23
(9) The Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United 24
States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 25
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•HRES 106 IH
1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials 1
of many countries, among them the allies of the 2
Ottoman Empire, against the Armenian Genocide. 3
(10) Ambassador Morgenthau explicitly de- 4
scribed to the United States Department of State 5
the policy of the Government of the Ottoman Em- 6
pire as ‘‘a campaign of race extermination,’’ and was 7
instructed on July 16, 1915, by United States Sec- 8
retary of State Robert Lansing that the ‘‘Depart- 9
ment approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian 10
persecution’’. 11
(11) Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 of Feb- 12
ruary 9, 1916, resolved that ‘‘the President of the 13
United States be respectfully asked to designate a 14
day on which the citizens of this country may give 15
expression to their sympathy by contributing funds 16
now being raised for the relief of the Armenians’’, 17
who at the time were enduring ‘‘starvation, disease, 18
and untold suffering’’. 19
(12) President Woodrow Wilson concurred and 20
also encouraged the formation of the organization 21
known as Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of 22
Congress, which contributed some $116,000,000 23
from 1915 to 1930 to aid Armenian Genocide sur- 24
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•HRES 106 IH
vivors, including 132,000 orphans who became foster 1
children of the American people. 2
(13) Senate Resolution 359, dated May 11, 3
1920, stated in part, ‘‘the testimony adduced at the 4
hearings conducted by the sub-committee of the Sen- 5
ate Committee on Foreign Relations have clearly es- 6
tablished the truth of the reported massacres and 7
other atrocities from which the Armenian people 8
have suffered’’. 9
(14) The resolution followed the April 13, 1920, 10
report to the Senate of the American Military Mis- 11
sion to Armenia led by General James Harbord, that 12
stated ‘‘[m]utilation, violation, torture, and death 13
have left their haunting memories in a hundred 14
beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that 15
region is seldom free from the evidence of this most 16
colossal crime of all the ages’’. 17
(15) As displayed in the United States Holo- 18
caust Memorial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering 19
his military commanders to attack Poland without 20
provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying 21
‘‘[w]ho, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of 22
the Armenians?’’ and thus set the stage for the Hol- 23
ocaust. 24
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•HRES 106 IH
(16) Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term 1
‘‘genocide’’ in 1944, and who was the earliest pro- 2
ponent of the United Nations Convention on the 3
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, invoked the 4
Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in 5
the 20th century. 6
(17) The first resolution on genocide adopted 7
by the United Nations at Lemkin’s urging, the De- 8
cember 11, 1946, United Nations General Assembly 9
Resolution 96(1) and the United Nations Convention 10
on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide itself 11
recognized the Armenian Genocide as the type of 12
crime the United Nations intended to prevent and 13
punish by codifying existing standards. 14
(18) In 1948, the United Nations War Crimes 15
Commission invoked the Armenian Genocide ‘‘pre- 16
cisely . . . one of the types of acts which the modern 17
term ‘crimes against humanity’ is intended to cover’’ 18
as a precedent for the Nuremberg tribunals. 19
(19) The Commission stated that ‘‘[t]he provi- 20
sions of Article 230 of the Peace Treaty of Sevres 21
were obviously intended to cover, in conformity with 22
the Allied note of 1915 . . ., offenses which had been 23
committed on Turkish territory against persons of 24
Turkish citizenship, though of Armenian or Greek 25
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•HRES 106 IH
race. This article constitutes therefore a precedent 1
for Article 6c and 5c of the Nuremberg and Tokyo 2
Charters, and offers an example of one of the cat- 3
egories of ‘crimes against humanity’ as understood 4
by these enactments’’. 5
(20) House Joint Resolution 148, adopted on 6
April 8, 1975, resolved: ‘‘[t]hat April 24, 1975, is 7
hereby designated as ‘National Day of Remembrance 8
of Man’s Inhumanity to Man’, and the President of 9
the United States is authorized and requested to 10
issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the 11
United States to observe such day as a day of re- 12
membrance for all the victims of genocide, especially 13
those of Armenian ancestry . . .’’. 14
(21) President Ronald Reagan in proclamation 15
number 4838, dated April 22, 1981, stated in part 16
‘‘like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and 17
the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it— 18
and like too many other persecutions of too many 19
other people—the lessons of the Holocaust must 20
never be forgotten’’. 21
(22) House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on 22
September 10, 1984, resolved: ‘‘[t]hat April 24, 23
1985, is hereby designated as ‘National Day of Re- 24
membrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man’, and the 25
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•HRES 106 IH
President of the United States is authorized and re- 1
quested to issue a proclamation calling upon the 2
people of the United States to observe such day as 3
a day of remembrance for all the victims of geno- 4
cide, especially the one and one-half million people of 5
Armenian ancestry . . .’’. 6
(23) In August 1985, after extensive study and 7
deliberation, the United Nations SubCommission on 8
Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Mi- 9
norities voted 14 to 1 to accept a report entitled 10
‘‘Study of the Question of the Prevention and Pun- 11
ishment of the Crime of Genocide,’’ which stated 12
‘‘[t]he Nazi aberration has unfortunately not been 13
the only case of genocide in the 20th century. 14
Among other examples which can be cited as quali- 15
fying are . . . the Ottoman massacre of Armenians 16
in 1915–1916’’. 17
(24) This report also explained that ‘‘[a]t least 18
1,000,000, and possibly well over half of the Arme- 19
nian population, are reliably estimated to have been 20
killed or death marched by independent authorities 21
and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in 22
United States, German and British archives and of 23
contemporary diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, in- 24
cluding those of its ally Germany.’’. 25
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•HRES 106 IH
(25) The United States Holocaust Memorial 1
Council, an independent Federal agency, unani- 2
mously resolved on April 30, 1981, that the United 3
States Holocaust Memorial Museum would include 4
the Armenian Genocide in the Museum and has 5
since done so. 6
(26) Reviewing an aberrant 1982 expression 7
(later retracted) by the United States Department of 8
State asserting that the facts of the Armenian Geno- 9
cide may be ambiguous, the United States Court of 10
Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1993, after 11
a review of documents pertaining to the policy 12
record of the United States, noted that the assertion 13
on ambiguity in the United States record about the 14
Armenian Genocide ‘‘contradicted longstanding 15
United States policy and was eventually retracted’’. 16
(27) On June 5, 1996, the House of Represent- 17
atives adopted an amendment to House Bill 3540 18
(the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Re- 19
lated Programs Appropriations Act, 1997) to reduce 20
aid to Turkey by $3,000,000 (an estimate of its pay- 21
ment of lobbying fees in the United States) until the 22
Turkish Government acknowledged the Armenian 23
Genocide and took steps to honor the memory of its 24
victims. 25
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•HRES 106 IH
(28) President William Jefferson Clinton, on 1
April 24, 1998, stated: ‘‘This year, as in the past, 2
we join with Armenian-Americans throughout the 3
nation in commemorating one of the saddest chap- 4
ters in the history of this century, the deportations 5
and massacres of a million and a half Armenians in 6
the Ottoman Empire in the years 1915–1923.’’. 7
(29) President George W. Bush, on April 24, 8
2004, stated: ‘‘On this day, we pause in remem- 9
brance of one of the most horrible tragedies of the 10
20th century, the annihilation of as many as 11
1,500,000 Armenians through forced exile and mur- 12
der at the end of the Ottoman Empire.’’. 13
(30) Despite the international recognition and 14
affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, the failure of 15
the domestic and international authorities to punish 16
those responsible for the Armenian Genocide is a 17
reason why similar genocides have recurred and may 18
recur in the future, and that a just resolution will 19
help prevent future genocides. 20
SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY. 21
The House of Representatives— 22
(1) calls upon the President to ensure that the 23
foreign policy of the United States reflects appro- 24
priate understanding and sensitivity concerning 25
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•HRES 106 IH
issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and 1
genocide documented in the United States record re- 2
lating to the Armenian Genocide and the con- 3
sequences of the failure to realize a just resolution; 4
and 5
(2) calls upon the President in the President’s 6
annual message commemorating the Armenian 7
Genocide issued on or about April 24, to accurately 8
characterize the systematic and deliberate annihila- 9
tion of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to re- 10
call the proud history of United States intervention 11
in opposition to the Armenian Genocide. 12
Æ
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[boomerang]

The Armenian Genocide was conceived and 3
carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 4
1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 5
2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, 6
women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors 7
were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded 8
in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of 9
Armenians in their historic homeland.

lets put the above into perspective
The gcs ethnic cleansing was conceived and
carried out by the turks in 1974,
resulting in the deportation of nearly
200,000 gcs, men, women, and children
6000 were killed, 1500 missing,
were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded
in the elimination of the over 3,500-year presence of
Cypriots in their historic homeland.

now compare the 2 and tell me you do not see similarities...

[tessintrnc]

In the early hours of this morning there was a special report on CNN where the US official representative of the President expressed deep disapointment in this issue being raised. They expressed "regret" that this issue has caused offence to their allies - Turkey. They emphasised the importance of Turkey's strategic position and of the importance of remaining as their ally and friend.

One thing I would ask, why is this matter not being resolved through archive records and historians findings? Why don't the Armenians open their own archives to an independant research team? So far they have refused - why? This happened toward the end of the Ottoman rule, and attrocities were carried out on both sides.
Tess

[boomerang]

In the early hours of this morning there was a special report on CNN where the US official representative of the President expressed deep disapointment in this issue being raised. They expressed "regret" that this issue has caused offence to their allies - Turkey. They emphasised the importance of Turkey's strategic position and of the importance of remaining as their ally and friend.

so in other words screw the victims because we want to have a good relationship? and then preach about genocide in darfur?...double standards here...

One thing I would ask, why is this matter not being resolved through archive records and historians findings? Why don't the Armenians open their own archives to an independant research team? So far they have refused - why? This happened toward the end of the Ottoman rule, and attrocities were carried out on both sides.

Are you for real?...who the hell will believe the murderer and the rapist?

[miltiades]

Tess , no they were not. Read the whole report and then express your views.Biased opinions are just that , biased. Many nations are guilty of committing genocide not least Turkey. The Armenian genocide DID occur.
The USA now says so too. The entire international community agrees. It is time for Turkey to accept irrefutable events and make adjustments to its own historical perceptions , at the same time removing the offensive article that makes it a crime for any one to criticise Turkish interpretation of events.

[boomerang]

This is what the rizi and gates had to say...unbelievable...

They seemed to forget that this great ally refused them entry into Iraq and forced the US to go around...some ally

here is the video
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/10/us.turkey.armenians/index.html?iref=newssearch#cnnSTCVideo

[paliometoxo]

turks need ot admit to their crimes

[EPSILON]

turks need ot admit to their crimes

And Greeks of Cyprus to stop to look fo a partnership with them.!!!!!

[zan]

turks need ot admit to their crimes

And Greeks of Cyprus to stop to look fo a partnership with them.!!!!!

I got all excited then but I only read two words and after that the reality struck home.....I thought you were going to say "And Greeks also".......What a fool I feel...

[phoenix]

http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3052373.ece