SENATE
                Amended 2nd Reading
                      April 19, 2013First Regular Session
              Sixty-ninth General Assembly
                    STATE OF COLORADO
                                                  ENGROSSED
                                                           
                                                           
 LLS NO. R13-0923.01 Effie Ameen x2044            SJR13-022
                   SENATE SPONSORSHIP
 Tochtrop, 
 
                    HOUSE SPONSORSHIP
 Ryden, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Senate Committees
 House Committees
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                  SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 13-022 
       Concerning the "Colorado Day of Remembrance of the
            Armenian Genocide" on April 24, 2013.
       
       
            WHEREAS, This year marks the 98th anniversary of the first
       genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian genocide, when 1.5 million
       men, women, and children of Armenian descent were victims of a brutal
       genocide perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923;
       and
       
            WHEREAS, As a result, there are fewer than 75,000 indigenous
       Armenians living within the borders of modern Turkey today; and
       
            WHEREAS, The former United States Ambassador to the Ottoman
       Empire, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., stated in 1915, "Whatever crimes the
       most perverted instincts of the human mind can devise, and whatever
       refinements of persecutions and injustice the most debased imagination
       can conceive, became the daily misfortunes of this devoted people."; and
       
            WHEREAS, The killing of the Armenian people was followed by
       the systematic destruction of churches, schools, libraries, treasures of art,
       and cultural monuments that continues to this day in an attempt to
       eliminate all traces of a noble civilization with a history of more than
       3,000 years; and
       
            WHEREAS, Colorado newspapers widely reported the
       extermination of the Armenian people, and Colorado communities
       generously raised funds to assist the survivors, known at that time as the
       "Starving Armenians"; and
       
            WHEREAS, In 2009, the New York Times reported on an official
       Ottoman document revealing that 972,000 Armenians disappeared from
       population records within one year, between 1915 and 1916; and
       
            WHEREAS, Despite overwhelming evidence, modern Turkey
       continues to deny the facts of the genocide, honor the perpetrators of that
       crime against humanity as national heroes, and persecute its citizens who
       acknowledge or even allude to the Armenian genocide; and
       
            WHEREAS, Each April, Armenians throughout the world honor
       their martyrs and commemorate the Armenian genocide, a term coined by
       scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1944, referencing the Armenian extermination
       as a seminal example of genocide; and
       
            WHEREAS, Ottoman Turkey's genocide, between 1915 and 1923,
       against its ancient Christian populations, including over 2 million
       Armenians, Assyrians, Pontian Greeks, and Syriacs, has left only a
       handful of Christian faithful to care for the vast religious heritage within
       modern Turkey that, to this day, continues to represent an integral part of
       these groups' Christian faith and cultural identity; and
       
            WHEREAS, The Republic of Turkey, through neglect, theft, acts
       of violence, intolerance, and other means of denying basic human rights,
       has destroyed or stolen much of the Christian heritage within its borders,
       and has prevented the remaining Christians in its territory from freely
       practicing their faith; and
       
       
            WHEREAS, We commend Armenians of Colorado, Inc., for their
       ongoing efforts to bring awareness and to educate the community,
       including our youth, about the Armenian genocide; and
       
            WHEREAS, We commend the growing number of Turkish
       citizens, including academics, writers, and journalists, who challenge
       their government's official account of history amid threats of prosecution
       and imprisonment; now, therefore,
       
            Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-ninth General Assembly
       of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:
       
            (1)  That this legislative body pause in its deliberations to
       commemorate the 98th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which will
       also be formally recognized at a memorial service at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday,
       April 28, 2013, at the Armenian Garden, located in the northeast quadrant
       on the State Capitol grounds;
       
            (2)  That we, the members of the General Assembly, hereby
       acknowledge April 24, 2013, and April 24 of each year thereafter, as
       "Colorado Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide"; and
       
            (3)  That we ask the government of Turkey to honor its obligations
       under international treaties and human rights law to return all that has
       been confiscated and to compensate for all destroyed Christian properties
       and sacred sites, allow for the reconstruction and preservation of these
       properties, and allow the Christian minorities to practice and teach their
       religion as requested by Congressional House Resolution 306,
       overwhelmingly adopted in December 2011.
       
            Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent
       to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States; the
       members of Colorado's congressional delegation; the members of the
       Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues; the Honorable John
       Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado; the Armenian Assembly of
       America in Washington, D.C.; the Armenian National Committee of
       America in Washington, D.C.; the Armenian and Turkish Embassies in
       Washington, D.C.; the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan,
       Armenia; and Armenians of Colorado, Inc.