L.A. WANTS GOV’T TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

CBS 2, CA
Feb 14 2007

(CBS) LOS ANGELES The Los Angeles City Council went on record Wednesday
in support of a proposed federal resolution asking the U.S. government
to recognize the Armenian genocide, which resulted in deaths of 1.5
million people in 1915.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, introduced HR 195 on Jan. 30, asking
President Bush to recognize the killings committed by Turkey’s Ottoman
Empire during World War I.

"This crime against humanity succeeded in the elimination of 3,000
years of cultural history in Ottoman, Turkey, and it was something
(Adolf) Hitler cited when he began the Holocaust of the Jews,"
Councilman Eric Garcetti said just before the council unanimously
voted to support the resolution. "He said, `After all, who remembers
the Armenians?"’

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that about 300,000
Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died during civil strife
in 1915.

The deaths occurred when Armenians in eastern Anatolia fought for
independence and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling
Ottoman Empire during World War I.

"These atrocities occurred a long time ago, and we’re still fighting
for the first condition of justice, the recognition of the gravity
of the evil done," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said during a news
conference in front of City Hall. "It is time we honored the Armenian
people by taking the first step toward justice."

In other action, the City Council’s Arts, Parks, Health and Aging
Committee agreed that Los Angeles should adopt Yerevan as a sister
city.

Yerevan, with a population of 1.2 million, is located in eastern
Armenia.