December 29, 2009

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ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTION

No. 12

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

214th LEGISLATURE

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman JOAN M. VOSS

District 38 (Bergen)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Chivukula

SYNOPSIS

Recognizes 90th anniversary of Armenian Genocide.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

A JOINT RESOLUTION recognizing the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

WHEREAS, From 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million Armenian people were systematically persecuted and executed by the governments of the Ottoman Empire in the first genocide of the twentieth century; and

WHEREAS, The genocide began on the night of April 24, 1915, when the Turkish government arrested more than 200 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople and hundreds more soon after; and

WHEREAS, Most of the prominent public figures of the Armenian community were summarily executed; and

WHEREAS, The Armenian people were then systematically subject to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre and starvation; and

WHEREAS, Hundreds of thousands of Armenian men, women and children were forcibly removed from their homes and deported to the Syrian desert, where the majority of the deportees died of dehydration and starvation; and

WHEREAS, It is estimated that by 1918, approximately one million people had perished, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees; and

WHEREAS, By 1923, the entire landmass of Asia Minor and historic West Armenia had been expunged of its Armenian population; now therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. This joint resolution recognizes the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and acknowledges the criminal mistreatment of the Armenians by the governments of the Ottoman Empire as an issue of international and historic significance.

2. The Governor and the Legislature shall call upon the citizens of the State of New Jersey to recognize the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and honor the memory of the 1.5 million people who died as a result.

3. This joint resolution shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This joint resolution recognizes the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the governments of the Ottoman Empire and acknowledges the criminal mistreatment of the Armenians by the governments of the Ottoman Empire as an issue of international and historic significance.

From 1915 to 1923, 1.5 million Armenian people were systematically persecuted and executed in the first genocide of the twentieth century.