PRESS RELEASE
Armenians Of Colorado Inc.
P.O. Box 13854
Denver, Colorado 80201
Contact: Kim Christianian
Tel: 303-588-5524
E-mail: [email protected]
Denver, Colorado
Web:
Wednesday April 28, 2010
Attorney Mark Geragos speaks in Denver as part of the Armenian Genocide
Commemoration events organized by Armenians of Colorado Inc.
Celebrated Los Angeles attorney Mark Geragos spoke about the Armenian
Genocide in his "Reparations: Beyond Recognition" speech as part of the
Armenian Genocide remembrance events organized by Armenians of Colorado
Inc. Geragos spoke to an engaged gathering at the Waring Theatre of
Arapahoe Community College. He was one of the lead lawyers in a pair of
groundbreaking federal class action lawsuits against New York Life
Insurance and AXA for insurance policies issued in the early twentieth
century during the time of the Armenian Genocide. These two cases
settled for over $37.5 million in 2004 and 2005. "The statistical data
about the case that Mr. Geragos shared was amazingly powerful
confirmation of the genocidal process of the Armenian people and the
crowd really appreciated his lecture in Denver" said Kim Christianian,
president of AOC. The lecture was sponsored by Armenians of Colorado
Inc. with support from Sigma Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa
International Honor Society, Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness &
Action, and Facing History And Ourselves.
On Friday April 23, 2010, the Colorado General Assembly unanimously
passed the 9th annual Armenian Genocide Resolution designating April 24
as Colorado Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. The resolution
was sponsored by long time supporter State Senator Lois Tochtrop and
State Representative Su Ryden. "Unlike previous years, there were no
reservations given by the legislators in passing the resolution", stated
Ken Allikian, chair of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration committee
which coordinates the resolution every year as well as securing
gubernatorial and Mayoral proclamations.
Armenians of Colorado (AOC) organized the annual commemoration ceremony
the following day at the Armenian Garden, located on the State Capitol
grounds, where there is a memorial headstone dedicated to the 1.5
million Armenians killed during the first genocide of the 20th century.
Over 100 people gathered for the ceremony. The speakers included: State
Senator Lois Tochtrop, Kim Christianian, AOC president and former
co-chair of the Armenians Genocide commemoration committee (GCC), Ken
Allikian, chair of the GCC, and Simon Maghakyan, secretary of AOC and
former co-chair of the GCC. Rosemary Rodriguez, state director for
Senator Michael Bennet read a letter from the Senator.
The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the Ottoman Turks during and
after WWI. It resulted
in the near complete annihilation and extermination of modern Turkey’s
indigenous Armenian population, and in the disappearance of Armenian
cultural artifacts dating back thousands of years. The Turkish
Government to this day denies that the Armenian Genocide ever happened
despite scholars’, historians’, and most western governments’ published
reports and archives affirming the facts of
the genocide. The term "genocide" was coined in 1944 (by Raphael Lemkin)
to describe, in part, what happened to Armenians during World War I.
Below is the text of the 2010 Colorado state resolution.
Sixty-seventh General Assembly
STATE OF COLORADO
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
CONCERNING REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ON APRIL
24, 2010, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, DESIGNATING EVERY APRIL 24
HEREAFTER AS "COLORADO DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE".
WHEREAS, This year marks the 95th 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, as a
result, there are fewer than 75,000 indigenous Armenians living within
the borders of modern Turkey; and
WHEREAS, The former United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire,
Henry Morgenthau, Sr., stated, "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, The New York Times recently reported a newly exposed official
Ottoman document revealing that 972,000 Armenians disappeared from
population records within one year; and
WHEREAS, Despite overwhelming evidence, modern Turkey continues to deny
and distort 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 all the world’s people should commemorate the Armenian Genocide and
condemn any attempt to deny its historical truth or mischaracterize it
as anything less than genocide, a term coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944
referencing the Armenian extermination as a
seminal example of genocide; and
WHEREAS, We must all fight against current injustices, such as the
ongoing first genocide of the 21st century in Darfur that is being
denied by the Turkish government, an ally of the Sudanese regime, which
demonstrates how the cycle of genocide continues; and
WHEREAS, We commend Armenians of Colorado, Inc., for organizing the
April 2010 genocide commemoration events, which include a keynote speech
by attorney Mark Geragos entitled "Reparations: Beyond Recognition",
held April 17th at Arapahoe Community College;
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
under article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which forbids denigration
of the Turkish nation and the Turkish government;
now, therefore, Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-seventh
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 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, to be recognized at a
memorial service at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 24, 2010, at the
Armenian Genocide memorial plaque in the Armenian Garden, located in the
northeast quadrant on the State Capitol grounds;
and
(2) That we, the members of the General Assembly, hereby acknowledge
April 24, 2010, and April 24 of each year hereafter, as "Colorado Day of
Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide".
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 the Colorado Congressional Delegation; the members of the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues; the Honorable Bill Ritter, Jr.,
Governor of Colorado; the Armenian Assembly of America in Washington,
D.C.; the Armenian National Committee in Washington,
D.C.; and the Armenian and Turkish Embassies in Washington, D.C.
Armenians of Colorado, Inc. (AOC) was established in June 1982. It is a
501(c) (3) non-profit,
cultural organization charged with a purpose to create a cohesive
Armenian community and to
further the understanding of Armenian history, culture, and heritage.
AOC actively supports issues
and concerns of the Armenian-American community here in Colorado as well
as those identified
within the Armenian Diaspora throughout the world. For more information
about Armenians of
Colorado go to