April 23, 1999

A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE of the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
1999
BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, the death of at least 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks and the forced deportation of countless others, is remembered every year on April 24, since 1915, as Armenian Martyrs Day; and

WHEREAS, eighty-four years ago, Armenians were forced to witness the slaughter of their relatives and the loss of their ancestral homeland; and

WHEREAS, the denial of the Armenian Genocide by the present-day Turkish Government continues to antagonize the Armenian people concerning their own rightful place in history; and

WHEREAS, the Armenian People have not received reparations for their losses; and

WHEREAS, Armenians have valiantly pursued the improvement and self-determination of their homelands; and

WHEREAS, notwithstanding such atrocities in the past, people of Armenian descent have been strong, productive, contributing citizens in the many communities in which they reside in the State of North Carolina; and

WHEREAS, on April 25, 1999, Armenian families from across North Carolina will gather in Charlotte to honor the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred under the Ottoman Turkish Government between 1915 and 1923;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JAMES B. HUNT JR., Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim April 24, 1999, as "A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE of the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE" in North Carolina, and encourage all citizens to commend its observance.

JAMES B. HUNT JR.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-third day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-second.