[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.
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