Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email.anca@anca.org
Internet

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
July 8, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

GENOCIDE AWARENESS ACT CLEARS CA STATE ASSEMBLY EDUCATION COMMITTEE

SACRAMENTO, CA — The California State Assembly Education
Committee unanimously passed SB 234, the Genocide Awareness Act
this afternoon, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA). The legislation, authored by CA Senator Mark Wyland (R-
northern San Diego County), calls on the CA State Curriculum
Commission to consider the inclusion of an oral history component
to its already mandatory genocide education curriculum.

Testifying on behalf of the Armenian National Committee, San
Francisco resident and former Human Rights Commissioner Haig
Baghdassarian urged members of the committee "to help foster
generations of citizens who have been sensitized to the horrors of
such crimes against humanity by providing them with an opportunity
to hear first-hand accounts from genocide survivors."

Also testifying in support of the bill was Dr. Stephan Astourian of
the University of California, Berkeley’s History Department. Dr.
Astourian also serves on the Board of Directors for the Genocide
Education Project.

Opening his testimony, Astourian noted that, "I will start with a
statement attributed to Stalin that justifies ironically enough the
importance and usefulness of this bill: the death of one man is a
tragedy, the death of millions a statistic. The introduction of
oral history in the curriculum will put the human face and voice on
that statistic. It will personalize and humanize the inhumane
abstraction that is genocide."

Both the curriculum and SB 234 make explicit reference to the
Armenian Genocide in addition to several other genocides of the
20th Century. The Turkish lobby has actively sought to undermine
the legislation as it progressed through the California State
Senate, which unanimously passed the bill on June 3rd this year.

Bruce Fein, the infamous Washington, DC-based professional Armenian
Genocide denier and lobbyist who had testified against SB 234
during the CA Senate Education Committee, once again traveled to
Sacramento in an attempt to derail the anti-genocide bill. His
efforts were rebuffed by Senator Wyland and the anti-genocide
advocates participating in the hearing.

When discussing the legislation after it passed through the CA
Senate Education Committee, Senator Wyland noted that, "only by
acknowledging horrific events of the past can we effectively
transform the future. The more we educate our kids, the closer we
are to determining why it is genocide happens over and over again."

"With over six million public school students, California has the
unique opportunity to influence a huge number of the next
generation of citizens by helping our children understand the
terror of genocide so it doesn’t happen again," he added.

Having cleared the CA State Assembly Education Committee, SB 234
now moves to the CA State Assembly Appropriations Committee for
consideration.