January 30, 1990

THE STATE OF WISCONSIN

1989 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 71

ENROLLED JOINT RESOLUTION

Relating to a day of remembrance for the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923.

Whereas, 1,500,000 people of Armenian ancestry were victims of genocide perpetrated by the governments of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923; and

Whereas, at the outbreak of World War I, the Young Turk regime decided to deport the entire Armenian population of about 1,750,000 to Syria and Mesopotamia; and

Whereas, Talaat Pasha, leader of the Young Turk movement, was principal author of the plan to exterminate the Armenians; and

Whereas, the plan of genocide consisted of deporting all Armenians of whatever age or condition of health to the totally barren Der-El-Zor region of what is now Syria; and

Whereas, the Armenians were deport to Der-El-Zor on foot, a death march in which more than 1,000,000 died of starvation or were killed; and

Whereas, Armenians were rounded up and brutally driven from their homes and their land, separated from families, robbed of everything they owned and stripped of all they carried with them; and

Whereas, thousands of Christian Armenians were tortured and murdered for refusing to accept Islam as their religion; and

Whereas, the atrocities inflicted on Armenians held in concentration camps and one the death marches to Der-El-Zor in the Syrian desert resemble those of the Holocaust of World War II; and

Whereas, the massacre of Armenians who escaped deportation and remained in Turkey was called the "most colossal crime of all ages" by the examining American military mission's report to the U.S. congress; and

Whereas, in a telegram sent by U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau to the secretary of state, Morgenthau warned that "a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion"; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the legislature of the state of Wisconsin proclaims April 24, 1990, as a day of remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923; and, be it further

Resolved, That the legislature calls upon the people of Wisconsin to observe that day by remembering the 1,500,000 people of Armenian ancestry who lost their lives in the genocide of 1915-1923.

(SIGNED)
Representative Thomas A. Loftus
Speaker of the Assembly

(SIGNED)
Senator Fred A. Risser
President of the Senate

(SIGNED)
Donald J. Schneider
Senate Chief Clerk

January 30, 1990

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