August 24, 2017

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State of Iowa

Executive Department

In The Name and By The Authority of The State of Iowa

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, from 1915-1923 during the Armenian Genocide, one and one-half million ethnic Armenian men, women and children as well as over one million Greeks, Assyrians, Syriacs and others were massacred as part of the planned complete eradication of those indigenous communities by the Ottoman Turkish Empire during the first modern genocide that still requires justice; and

WHEREAS, prior to the implementation of the Holocaust, in order to garner support from his followers, Adolf Hitler asked, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and

WHEREAS, the Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945 – six million Jews were murdered; Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic or national reasons; and millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny; and

WHEREAS, other cases of genocide include the killings in Cambodia in 1975, the massacres in Bosnia in 1992, the slaughter in Rwanda in 1994 and now in the 21st century, the displacements and deaths in Darfur as well as targeting of religious minorities by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Middle East; and

WHEREAS, the United States House of Representatives has adopted H.Con.Res. 75, declaring the atrocities perpetrated by the ISIL against Christians, Yezidis and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide; and

WHEREAS, by recognizing and consistently remembering the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust and all cases of past and ongoing genocide, we help protect historic memory, ensure that similar atrocities do not occur again and remain vigilant against hatred, persecution and tyranny:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Kim Reynolds, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim the month of October, 2017 as

ARMENIA AWARENESS MONTH

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I HAVE HEREUNTO SUBSCRIBED MY NAME AND CAUSED THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF IOWA TO BE AFFIXED. DONE AT DES MOINES THIS 24TH DAY OF AUGUST IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD TWO THOUSAND SEVENTEEN.

[Signed]

KIM REYNOLDS

GOVERNOR OF IOWA

ATTEST:

[Signed]

PAUL D. PATE

SECRETARY OF STATE