SACRAMENTO—Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation on the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Below is the text of that document:
WHEREAS, April 24, 1915, marked the beginning of the Armenian Genocide which resulted in the death of over two million Armenians as well as Greeks and Assyrians between 1915 and 1923; and
WHEREAS, nearly half million Armenians who survived the horrors of extermination were expelled from their homes and forced to settle in various countries throughout the world; and
WHEREAS, the Armenian Genocide is one of the first modern genocides which resulted in the near annihilation of a people and the dispossession of the survivors from their cultural homeland and heritage; and
WHEREAS, the Republic of Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire under which the Genocide was committed, unjustifiably and adamantly denies the occurrence of this crime against humanity while actively continuing to remove traces of Armenian existence. This includes the neglect and intentional destruction of the thousands of remaining churches throughout the Armenian Highlands which make up today’s eastern Turkey; and
WHEREAS, the International Association of Genocide Scholars has repeatedly affirmed that the massacres of Armenians initiated in 1915 constitutes genocide; and
WHEREAS, throughout the 20th Century the Armenian Genocide was followed by several other genocides and this pattern continues to this day as seen in the Darfur region of Sudan. If we fail to remember the lessons of the past and remain silent in deference to a campaign of denial we embolden current and future perpetrators of genocide; and
WHEREAS, many survivors of the Genocide settled in states around the country, including California. California has become home to the largest population of Armenians in the United States and those citizens have enriched our state through leadership in the fields of academia, medicine, business, agriculture, government, and the arts and are proud and patriotic practitioners of American citizenship; and
NOW, THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Lieutenant Governor of the State of California, do hereby join Californians and the Armenian American Community in commemorating the 97th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Bravo
This is one of best Proclamations yet with all its “Where as’s” in perfect order including even the mention of Sudan, Turkey’s good friend, whose murderous leader is currently indicted by the Un for genocide.
Gavin, who swings far to the left, has proven that he is both a good student and politician and he will most likely become Governor. Governor Brown also “gets it”. If the Turks continue to play their denial card, we could pass legislation prohibiting trade and investment in Turkey much like was done to the apartheid regime of South Africa.
I don’t think California would lose much because the only Turkish products I’ve seen here are those dolmas they sell in a can (not bad but tastes a little funny and the grape leaves are too tough) and those little pale orange “dried apricots”, which are picked green and dyed, have little flavor and chew like rubber-no comparison to our California cots-which are delicious. Don’t mess with iour politics or try to sell your historical amnesia here Turkey, you will get your a$$ kicked out.
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