March 23, 1990

THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

BY HIS EXCELLENCY

MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS

GOVERNOR

A PROCLAMATION

1990

WHEREAS: Since 1915, April 24th of every year has been imprinted in the memory of the Armenian people worldwide. It was then that 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 honoring the memory of the brave men and women who died in this Holocaust; and

WHEREAS: Armenian families were uprooted from their ancestral homeland, brutally exposed to all kinds of indignities, and hundreds of thousands slain, resulting in more than half of all Armenian people killed; 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 respect for the dignity of humans constitute the indestructible foundation for life, liberty, freedom, equality and 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 persecution, torture, and killing must cease forever; and

WHEREAS: Even natural tragedies, such as the earthquake of 1988, which killed thousands of Armenians, shall serve only as a continued challenge to the resolve and resiliency of the Armenian spit;

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 24, 1990, 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 twenty-third day of March, one thousand nine hundred and ninety, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and fifteenth.

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

(SIGNED)
MICHAEL JOSEPH CONNOLLY
Secretary of the Commonwealth