ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION SET TO VOTE IN U.S. HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.02.2010 13:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman,
Howard Berman, a leading Congressional supporter of human rights and a
longstanding friend of the Armenian American community, has scheduled
a vote of his panel on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.252,
for Thursday, March 4, reported the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA).

"We want to thank Chairman Berman for his vision and strength in
taking this bold step to send the clear message to Turkey that
the United States Congress will not be complicit in their immoral
efforts to deny truth and justice for the Armenian Genocide," said
Ken Hachikian, Chairman of the ANCA, following his meeting yesterday
in Washington, DC with the senior California legislator. "We look
forward to working with the Chairman and all our friends on the
Committee from both parties to facilitate passage of this critical
piece of human rights legislation by both this panel and the full
House of Representatives. Our grassroots activists are mobilized to
help achieve the success of this effort."

H.Res.252, introduced in March of 2009 by lead sponsors Adam Schiff
and George Radanovich, and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-chairs
Frank Pallone and Mark Kirk, currently has over 135 cosponsors. A
parallel Senate measure, spearheaded by Senators Bob Menendez and
John Ensign , has 13 cosponsors.

Hachikian also consulted with several other Representatives, most
notably, Congressional Armenian Genocide Resolution author Adam Schiff
, Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone , and senior
House Foreign Affairs Committee Members Brad Sherman, and Ed Royce.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria.

To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots political organization.

Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters and
supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations
around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns of the
Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress