SENATE RESOLUTION PROCLAIMING APRIL 24, 2026, AS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915 TO 1923, AND IN HONOR OF ARMENIAN-AMERICANS, the official text

S3207 2026 -- S 3207 ======== LC006225 ======== STATE OF RHODE ISLAND IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2026 ____________ S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N PROCLAIMING APRIL 24, 2026, AS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE DAY TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915 TO 1923, AND IN HONOR OF ARMENIAN-AMERICANS Introduced By: Senators Tikoian, Gallo, Patalano, Mack, Raptakis, Bissaillon, Ciccone, LaMountain, Felag, and Burke Date Introduced: April 09, 2026 Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration 1 WHEREAS, The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman 2 Empire from 1915 to 1923, and resulted in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of 3 whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, and the remaining 500,000 survived but 4 were expelled from their homes. This act succeeded in the elimination of the Armenians from 5 their historic ancestral homeland where they had resided for over 2,500 years; and 6 WHEREAS, On May 24, 1915, for the first time ever, the Allied Powers of England, 7 France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging another government of 8 committing a crime against humanity ; and 9 WHEREAS, This joint statement declared, the Allied Governments announce publicly 10 to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of 11 the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres ; 12 and 13 WHEREAS, United States Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. explicitly described the 14 policy of the Ottoman Empire s government to the United States Department of State as a 15 campaign of race extermination, and on July 16, 1915, was informed by United States Secretary 16 of State Robert Lansing that the Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian 17 persecution ; and 18 WHEREAS, The post-World War I Turkish government indicted the top leaders involved 19 in the organization and execution of the Armenian Genocide and in the massacre and destruction 1 of the Armenians, and in a series of court-martials, officials of the Young Turk regime were 2 charged, tried and convicted, for organizing and executing massacres against the Armenian 3 people; and 4 WHEREAS, In 1948, the United Nations War Crimes Commission invoked the 5 Armenian Genocide as precisely . . . one of the types of acts which the modern term crimes 6 against humanity is intended to cover as a precedent for the Nuremberg tribunals; and 7 WHEREAS, The United States National Archives and Record Administration holds 8 extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide, especially in its holdings 9 under Record Group 59 of the United States Department of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which 10 are open and widely available to the public and interested institutions; and 11 WHEREAS, The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, an independent federal 12 agency, unanimously resolved on April 30, 1981, that the United States Holocaust Memorial 13 Museum would include the Armenian Genocide in the museum and has since done so; and 14 WHEREAS, When one enters the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, there is an 15 exhibit depicting Adolf Hitler, who on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland without 16 provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by stating [w]ho, after all, speaks today of the 17 annihilation of the Armenians? , thus setting the stage for the Holocaust; and 18 WHEREAS, On April 24, 2021, United States President Joe Biden stated, …we 19 remember the lives of all those who have died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and 20 recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring ; and 21 WHEREAS, In Turkey s continuing aggression and genocide of Armenians that began 22 more than 100 years ago, the 2020 unprovoked war between Azerbaijan, with military support 23 provided by Turkey, and the Republic of Artsakh resulted in Artsakh being forced to return many 24 of the surrounding territories it had occupied for millennia; and 25 WHEREAS, On January 1, 2024, when faced with the prospect of rule by Azerbaijan, 26 more than one hundred thousand people, 80 percent of Nagorno-Karabakh s primarily Armenian 27 population, fled to Armenia in one week; and 28 WHEREAS, In August of 2025, Armenia and Azerbaijan committed to establishing 29 formal diplomatic relations through a peace agreement signed in Washinton, D.C., breaking over 30 three decades of hostility. Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Joint Declaration on 31 August 8, 2025, to end fighting, open transportation links, and initiate diplomatic relations; now, 32 therefore be it 33 RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby recognizes April 24, 34 2026, as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in the State of Rhode Island; and be it further LC006225 - Page 2 of 3 1 RESOLVED, That this Senate hereby respectfully requests the President of the United 2 States and the United States Congress to call on the government of Turkey to face history and 3 acknowledge this crime of genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, and urge the 4 Turkish government to make restitution for the loss of lives, confiscated properties, and general 5 unlawful deportations, separating the indigenous population from their homeland; and be it 6 further 7 RESOLVED, That this Senate expresses its deepest sympathy to the Armenian-American 8 community of Rhode Island and assures them that this genocide will always be commemorated 9 and never forgotten; and be it further 10 RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to 11 transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Honorable Donald Trump, President of the 12 United States, the Rhode Island Congressional Delegation, the Governor of the State of Rhode 13 Island, the Armenian Assembly of America in Washington, and the Armenian National 14 Committee in Washington. ======== LC006225 ======== LC006225 - Page 3 of 3