February 19, 1986

THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

By His Excellency

MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS

Governor

A PROCLAMATION

1986

WHEREAS: April 24 of every year is indelibly imprinted in the memory of the Armenian people, worldwide, since the year 1915, when the mass genocide of the Armenian people began in the Ottoman Turkish Empire, this being the first genocide of the twentieth century; and

WHEREAS: The Armenian citizens of our Commonwealth are dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the martyrs of this genocide that began with the arrest and murder of Armenian community leaders and members of the national parliament; and

WHEREAS: The Armenian families were uprooted from their ancestral homeland, brutally exposed to all kinds of indignities, and slain by the hundreds of thousands so that more than half the Armenian people perished; and

WHEREAS: We consider all atrocities, perpetrated by individuals or governments to be repulsive and abhorrent in civilized societies; and

WHEREAS: In our democracy the principles of humanity and the dignity of man constitute the indestructible foundation for life, liberty, freedom and equality for the pursuit of happiness; and

WHEREAS: In our Commonwealth, Americans of Armenian ancestry have contributed to the good of our Commonwealth in the best traditions of our State and Nation, in war as in peace; and

WHEREAS: Our prayers in the Commonwealth, offered in memory of the Armenian martyrs of 1915, will serve to remind governments of the world that man's inhumanity to man must cease forever;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in accordance with Chapter 185 of the Acts of 1978, do hereby proclaim April 24th 1986, as

ARMENIAN MARTYRS' DAY

and urge the citizens of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and to participate fittingly in its observance.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this nineteenth day of February, one thousand nine hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and tenth.

(SIGNED)
By His Excellency the Governor
MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS

(SIGNED)
MICHAEL JOSEPH CONNOLLY
Secretary of the Commonwealth

GOD SAVE THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS