[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 195 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 195

Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, urging the Government 
    of the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the culpability of its 
 predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide and 
 engage in rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian 
people, and supporting the accession of Turkey to the European Union if 
                     Turkey meets certain criteria.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 29, 2005

  Mr. Schiff submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Commemorating the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, urging the Government 
    of the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the culpability of its 
 predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide and 
 engage in rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian 
people, and supporting the accession of Turkey to the European Union if 
                     Turkey meets certain criteria.

Whereas the 20th century was the bloodiest in history and saw the application of 
        the tools of the modern industrial state to mass killings which have 
        come to be called genocide;
Whereas 20th century genocides have included the Armenian Genocide, the 
        Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, and the Rwandan Genocide;
Whereas the Government of Sudan is currently engaged in a genocide against the 
        people of Darfur, Sudan;
Whereas the consequences of these genocides continue to affect all humanity, 
        especially those who have been its victims;
Whereas only by acknowledging responsibility and reconciling with the victims 
        can a nation or people that committed genocide fully return to the 
        community of nations;
Whereas the Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century;
Whereas the Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman 
        Empire from 1915 to 1923, prior to the establishment of the Republic of 
        Turkey;
Whereas in August 1914, the Ottoman Government formed a paramilitary 
        organization called the Special Organization;
Whereas the Special Organization created units called ``butcher battalions'', 
        which were made up of violent criminals released from prison, to carry 
        out the extermination of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire;
Whereas in February 1915, the Ottoman Government ordered Armenian men serving in 
        the army disarmed and organized into forced labor groups;
Whereas on the night of April 23-24, 1915, hundreds of Armenian intellectuals 
        and community leaders were summarily arrested in Constantinople;
Whereas this was the first of a series of roundups of Armenian politicians, 
        priests, scientists, lawyers, doctors, and writers of the Ottoman 
        Empire, most of whom were killed soon after;
Whereas the first mass deportations began in late March 1915 in the region of 
        Cilicia, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, according to an 
        extensive plan of deportation and elimination of the Armenian population 
        of the Ottoman Empire that was prepared by Talat Pasha, the head of the 
        government;
Whereas notices of deportation were posted in public places and the news 
        announced publicly in the streets of Armenian towns and villages;
Whereas the Ottoman Government's campaign resulted in the deportation of nearly 
        2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were 
        killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which 
        succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of 
        Armenians in their historic homeland;
Whereas there are numerous contemporaneous documentations of the Ottoman 
        Government's campaign against the Armenians, including extensive 
        accounts in Western newspapers and government documents in the national 
        archives of Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United 
        States, and the Vatican;
Whereas this documentation unequivocally describes the systematic murder of the 
        Armenian people and the destruction of Armenian life within the Ottoman 
        Empire;
Whereas Henry Morgenthau Sr., the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman 
        Empire, sent a cable to the United States State Department in 1915: 
        ``Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing 
        and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses [sic] it appears that a 
        campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of 
        reprisal against rebellion.'';
Whereas Abram Elkus, who succeeded Morgenthau as United States Ambassador in 
        1916, sent a cable to Washington that the Ottoman Turks were continuing 
        an ``. . . unchecked policy of extermination through starvation, 
        exhaustion, and brutality of treatment'';
Whereas in 1920, the Communists came to power in Armenia following an invasion 
        by the Red Army;
Whereas Armenia was part of the Soviet Union for the next 70 years;
Whereas the Republic of Armenia is working toward democracy, the rule of law, 
        and a viable free market economy since obtaining its freedom from Soviet 
        rule in 1991;
Whereas the Republic of Armenia is a member of the Council of Europe, the 
        Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the North 
        Atlantic Treaty Organization's Partnership for Peace;
Whereas the Republic of Armenia is a friend and ally of the United States;
Whereas the modern Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923;
Whereas the Republic of Turkey abolished Ottoman institutions, including the 
        sultanate and caliphate, and underwent a period of modernization and 
        westernization;
Whereas the Republic of Turkey has been a long-standing member of numerous 
        international organizations, including the Council of Europe, the North 
        Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Organization for Security and 
        Cooperation in Europe;
Whereas the Republic of Turkey is a friend and ally of the United States;
Whereas the Republic of Turkey, because of its position at the crossroads of 
        Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East, is well 
        positioned to play a leading role in shaping developments in Europe and 
        beyond;
Whereas the United States has an interest in the stability and economic 
        development of Turkey and the Caucasus region;
Whereas the Republic of Turkey desires to join the European Union;
Whereas the European Union and the Republic of Turkey will begin accession talks 
        in October 2005;
Whereas former Secretary of State Colin Powell welcomed the announcement of 
        accession talks in December 2004 by saying that the United States is 
        ``confident that the accession process, and Turkey's eventual membership 
        in the European Union, will bring great benefits to Turkey and to the 
        European Union . . . [t]he Turkish people have much to look forward to . 
        . . [a] Turkey that is firmly anchored in Europe and sharing European 
        values will be a positive force for prosperity and democracy . . . 
        [t]his is good for Turkey, for the broader European region, and for the 
        United States, and that is why successive United States administrations 
        have consistently supported Turkey's European aspirations'';
Whereas the European Union in 1993 established criteria for membership for 
        Central and Eastern European countries that require that the candidate 
        country must have achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing 
        democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection 
        of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well as 
        the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within 
        the Union, and the ability to take on the obligations of membership, 
        including adherence to the aims of political, economic, and monetary 
        union;
Whereas Republic of Turkey is making progress in many of these areas, as 
        reflected in the decision to open accession negotiations;
Whereas in order to meet the accession criteria regarding the respect for and 
        treatment of minorities, the Republic of Turkey must acknowledge the 
        culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the 
        Armenian Genocide;
Whereas the Republic of Turkey has consistently refused to acknowledge the 
        culpability of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, for the 
        Armenian Genocide;
Whereas the European Parliament passed a resolution in June 1987 stating that 
        the killing of ``Armenians living in the territory of the Ottoman Empire 
        constitute genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the 
        Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the 
        United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948'';
Whereas in the 1987 Resolution the European Parliament stated that ``the refusal 
        by the present Turkish Government to acknowledge the genocide against 
        the Armenian people committed by [the Ottoman] government, [is] an 
        insurmountable obstacle to consideration of the possibility of Turkey's 
        accession to the Community'';
Whereas the European Parliament, in a resolution passed in November 2000 on 
        Turkey's progress toward accession to the European Union, called upon 
        Turkey ``to give fresh support to the Armenian minority, as an important 
        part of Turkish society, in particular by public recognition of the 
        genocide which that minority suffered before the establishment of the 
        modern state of Turkey'';
Whereas the European Parliament passed a resolution in February 2002 reiterating 
        its recognition of the Armenian Genocide and noting ``that the Turkish 
        regime after the First World War had several of those responsible for 
        the genocide severely punished'';
Whereas the European Parliament, in its December 2004 parliamentary report on 
        Turkey's progress toward accession to the European Union, urged Turkey 
        to ``promote the process of reconciliation with the Armenian people by 
        acknowledging the genocide'' and called on the European Council and 
        Commission to demand that Turkey ``formally acknowledge the historic 
        reality'' of the Genocide;
Whereas the national parliaments of several members of the European Union and a 
        number of other national parliaments have passed resolutions recognizing 
        the Armenian Genocide;
Whereas in recent years there has been an increasing willingness of Turkish 
        academics, journalists, and others to openly discuss the Armenian 
        Genocide, but this has often been met with hostility by the Government 
        of the Republic of Turkey;
Whereas a group of historians organized and scheduled an academic conference 
        relating to the Armenian Genocide to take place starting June 1, 2005, 
        at Bosporus University in Istanbul, but the Government of the Republic 
        of Turkey successfully pressured the university to cancel the 
        conference; and
Whereas the Republic of Turkey's acknowledgement of the actions of the Ottoman 
        Government, including the terrible tragedy of the Armenian Genocide, 
        will herald a new chapter in the history of the region and usher in a 
        new era of economic, social, and political progress: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) commemorates the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 
        1915-1923;
            (2) calls upon the President to commemorate the victims of 
        the Armenian Genocide on behalf of the people and Government of 
        the United States;
            (3) calls upon the Government of the Republic of Turkey to 
        acknowledge the culpability of its predecessor state, the 
        Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide;
            (4) calls upon the Government of the Republic of Turkey to 
        promote rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the 
        Armenian people and realize a just resolution;
            (5) supports the accession to the European Union of the 
        Republic of Turkey if Turkey--
                    (A) acknowledges the culpability of its predecessor 
                state, the Ottoman Empire for the Armenian Genocide;
                    (B) pursues rapprochement with the Republic of 
                Armenia and the Armenian people; and
                    (C) meets the other criteria for accession as 
                determined by the European Union;
            (6) calls upon the European Union to look with favor upon 
        any actions by the Government of the Republic of Turkey to 
        acknowledge the culpability of its predecessor state, the 
        Ottoman Empire, for the Armenian Genocide and engage in 
        rapprochement with the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian 
        people;
            (7) stands ready to assist the Republic of Turkey and the 
        Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people in this process; 
        and
            (8) calls upon the President, the Secretary of State, the 
        European Union, and others to assist the Republic of Turkey and 
        the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people in this 
        process.
                                 <all>