J04589 Summary:

BILL NOJ04589
 
SAME ASNo Same As
 
SPONSORMALTESE
 
COSPNSRBROWN, DEFRANCISCO, FARLEY, GENTILE, GONZALEZ, HANNON, HASSELL-THOMPSON, HOFFMANN, JOHNSON, KUHL,LACHMAN, LACK, LARKIN, LAVALLE, MARCELLINO, MARCHI, MAZIARZ, MCGEE, MEIER, MENDEZ, MONTGOMERY,MORAHAN, ONORATO, PADAVAN, PATERSON, RATH, SALAND, SANTIAGO, SEWARD, SMITH A, SMITH M, STACHOWSKI,STAVISKY, VELELLA
 
MLTSPNSR
 
 
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J04589 Actions:

BILL NOJ04589
 
03/25/2002REFERRED TO FINANCE
03/26/2002REPORTED TO CALENDAR FOR CONSIDERATION
03/26/2002ADOPTED
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J04589 Text:

 
Senate Resolution No. 4589
 
BY: Senator MALTESE
 
        COMMEMORATING the 87th Anniversary of the Armenian
        Genocide on April 19, 2002
 
  WHEREAS,  This  Resolution  arises from a sense of human decency and
respect for the Armenian people and their history; and
 
  WHEREAS, Towards the end of the 19th Century, the Turkish Government
began to systematically persecute their citizens of  Armenian  heritage;
and
 
  WHEREAS,  From  1894  to  1896,  Sultan  Abdu-Hamid  II  ordered the
massacre of 300,000  Armenians  living  within  the  boundaries  of  the
Turkish Empire; and
 
  WHEREAS,  In 1909, 30,000 more Armenian men, women and children were
slaughtered by Turkish armies in the mountain village of Cilicia; and
 
  WHEREAS, Nonetheless, by the onset  of  World  War  I,  there  still
remained  2,500,000  Armenians  who  made their homes within the Ottoman
Empire; of these, over 250,000 were faithful soldiers who loyally fought
within the ranks of its armies in an effort to  defend  their  homeland;
and
 
  WHEREAS,   On  April  24,  1915,  hundreds  of  Armenian  religious,
political,  and  intellectual  leaders  were  rounded  up,  exiled   and
eventually murdered in secret death camps hidden in mountainsides; and
 
  WHEREAS,  Over  the  course  of  the  next  six months, the Armenian
soldiers on active duty in the army were disarmed and placed  in  forced
labor  battalions,  whereupon  many  either  starved  or  were summarily
executed behind the fences of these camps; and
 
  WHEREAS, Deprived of their leaders  and  the  young  men  who  could
defend  these  helpless  communities,  the remaining Armenians became an
easy target for the government raids and found themselves at  the  mercy
of cruel and often barbaric persecutors; and
 
  WHEREAS,  A total of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women and children were
massacred; 500,000 more were exiled; and 500,000 were able to escape the
reign of terror and establish themselves in  new  foreign  lands;  as  a
result,  today  there  are only 100,000 people of Armenian heritage left
residing within the borders of modern Turkey; and
 
  WHEREAS, The devastation which resulted from this "ethnic cleansing"
practiced by the rulers of the Ottoman  Empire  occurred  in  a  similar
ratio  to  that  caused by the Jewish Holocaust of 1940, yet most of the
world's peoples do not realize the gravity of the Armenian genocide; and
 
  WHEREAS,  The  Armenian  people  have  been  denied  the  right   to
self-determination  on their ancestral lands; they have received no form
of reparations for their tragic losses; and
 
  WHEREAS, Members of the Armenian community honor the memory  of  the
victims of this genocide and emphasize that crimes against humanity must
be condemned and never be allowed; now, therefore, be it
 
  RESOLVED,  That  this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate  the  87th  Anniversary  of  the  Armenian  Genocide  to  be
recognized  at  a  reception  on Friday, April 19, 2002, at the New York
Hemsley Hotel, New York, New York; and be it further
 
  RESOLVED, That this Resolution is intended to counter  the  tide  of
revisionist history which purports that the Armenian Genocide never took
place; and be it further
 
  RESOLVED,  That  copies  of  this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to Alex Sarafian, Chairman, Armenian National  Committee  of
New York and Friends of ANC-NY.
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