House Democrats will bring to the floor on Tuesday a long-stalled and controversial resolution that could further inflame already tense U.S.-Turkey relations. Top Democrats say that is exactly the point.
One of the lead co-sponsors of the four-page resolution is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who represents one of the largest concentrations of Armenian Americans in the United States. The resolution also enjoys support from many House Republicans, including Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida and Rep. Peter King of New York, both co-sponsors.
As a result The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century as genocide. The nonbinding measure passed with an overwhelming majority of 405 to 11 on October 29.
Mavi Boncuk |
116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 296
Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 8, 2019
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. COSTA, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. RASKIN, Miss RICE of New York, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. BEYER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. CORREA, Mr. NUNES, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. LEE of California, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr.
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. MENG, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. TONKO, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. LANGEVIN, Ms. TITUS, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Ms. SANCHEZ, Mr. SPANO, Mr. NEAL, Mr. MORELLE, Mr. CARDENAS, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. CISNEROS, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. COX of California, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. KEVIN HERN of Oklahoma, Mr. SIRES, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. HARDER of California, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. MOULTON, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. NADLER, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. VARGAS, Ms.LOFGREN, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, and Ms. SHALALA) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
Whereas the United States has a proud history of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from
1915 to 1923, and providing relief to the survivors of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians;
Whereas the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries against what he described as the empire’s ‘‘campaign of race extermination’’, and was instructed on July 16, 1915, by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the ‘‘Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian persecution’’;
Whereas President Woodrow Wilson encouraged the formation of the Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress, which raised $116,000,000 (over $2,500,000,000 in 2019 dollars) between 1915 and 1930, and the Senate adopted resolutions condemning these massacres;
Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘‘genocide’’ in 1944, and who was the earliest proponent of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in the 20th century;
Whereas, as displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying ‘‘[w]ho, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’’, setting the
stage for the Holocaust;
Whereas the United States has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, through the United States Government’s May 28, 1951, written statement to the International Court of Justice regarding the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, through President Ronald Reagan’s Proclamation No. 4838 on April 22, 1981, and by House Joint Resolution 148, adopted on April 8, 1975, and House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on September 10, 1984; and
Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441) establishes that atrocities prevention represents a United States national interest, and affirms that it is the policy of the United States to pursue a United States Government-wide strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by ‘‘strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of foreign assistance to support appropriate transitional justice measures, including criminal accountability, for past atrocities’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep resentatives that it is the policy of the United States to—
(1) commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance;
(2) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States Government with denial of the Armenian Genocide or any other genocide; and
(3) encourage education and public under10 standing of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, including the United States role in the humanitarian relief effort, and the relevance of the Armenian Genocide to modern-day crimes against humanity.
One of the lead co-sponsors of the four-page resolution is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who represents one of the largest concentrations of Armenian Americans in the United States. The resolution also enjoys support from many House Republicans, including Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida and Rep. Peter King of New York, both co-sponsors.
As a result The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century as genocide. The nonbinding measure passed with an overwhelming majority of 405 to 11 on October 29.
Mavi Boncuk |
116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 296
Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 8, 2019
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. COSTA, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. RASKIN, Miss RICE of New York, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. BEYER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. PINGREE, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. CORREA, Mr. NUNES, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. LEE of California, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr.
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. MENG, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. TONKO, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. LANGEVIN, Ms. TITUS, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Ms. SANCHEZ, Mr. SPANO, Mr. NEAL, Mr. MORELLE, Mr. CARDENAS, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. CISNEROS, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. COX of California, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. DEUTCH, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. KEVIN HERN of Oklahoma, Mr. SIRES, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. HARDER of California, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. MOULTON, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. SARBANES, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. NADLER, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. VARGAS, Ms.LOFGREN, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, and Ms. SHALALA) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
Whereas the United States has a proud history of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from
1915 to 1923, and providing relief to the survivors of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians;
Whereas the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries against what he described as the empire’s ‘‘campaign of race extermination’’, and was instructed on July 16, 1915, by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the ‘‘Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian persecution’’;
Whereas President Woodrow Wilson encouraged the formation of the Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress, which raised $116,000,000 (over $2,500,000,000 in 2019 dollars) between 1915 and 1930, and the Senate adopted resolutions condemning these massacres;
Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘‘genocide’’ in 1944, and who was the earliest proponent of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in the 20th century;
Whereas, as displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying ‘‘[w]ho, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’’, setting the
stage for the Holocaust;
Whereas the United States has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, through the United States Government’s May 28, 1951, written statement to the International Court of Justice regarding the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, through President Ronald Reagan’s Proclamation No. 4838 on April 22, 1981, and by House Joint Resolution 148, adopted on April 8, 1975, and House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on September 10, 1984; and
Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441) establishes that atrocities prevention represents a United States national interest, and affirms that it is the policy of the United States to pursue a United States Government-wide strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by ‘‘strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of foreign assistance to support appropriate transitional justice measures, including criminal accountability, for past atrocities’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep resentatives that it is the policy of the United States to—
(1) commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance;
(2) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States Government with denial of the Armenian Genocide or any other genocide; and
(3) encourage education and public under10 standing of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, including the United States role in the humanitarian relief effort, and the relevance of the Armenian Genocide to modern-day crimes against humanity.