House Concurrent Resolution 119

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION AFFIRMING THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION SENATE RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING AND DENOUNCING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE.

WHEREAS, the University of Southern Mississippi's Student Government Association Senate passed a resolution seeking the State of Mississippi to recognize and denounce the Armenian Genocide; and

WHEREAS, forty-three of the fifty states in the United States of America have passed resolutions denouncing the events that transpired in the Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923 as a genocide; and

WHEREAS, the State of Mississippi has not yet done so; and

WHEREAS, this is a sad oversight on the part of the great State of Mississippi that we, the assembled Student Senate of The University of Southern Mississippi, believe should be remedied as quickly as possible; and

WHEREAS, students and constituents therefore call upon the Mississippi Legislature to join with their fellow states and issue a resolution recognizing the tragic events that occurred in the Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923 as an act of genocide and a despicable crime against humanity; and

WHEREAS, the Student Government Senate finds the following:

(1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting 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;

(2) On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, England, France and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing "a crime against humanity";

(3) This joint statement stated, "The Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres";

(4) The post World War I Turkish Government indicted the top leaders involved in the "organization and execution" of the Armenian Genocide and in the "massacre and destruction of the Armenians";

(5) In a series of courts-martial, officials of the Young Turk Regime were tried and convicted, as charged, for organizing and executing massacres against the Armenian people;

(6) The chief organizers of the Armenian Genocide, Minister of War Enver, Minister of the Interior Talaat, and Minister of the Navy Jemal were all condemned to death for their crimes, however, the verdicts of the courts were not enforced;

(7) The Armenian Genocide and these domestic judicial failures are documented with overwhelming evidence in the national archives of Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, the Vatican and many other countries, and this vast body of evidence attests to the same facts, the same events, and the same consequences;

(8) The United States National Archives and Record Administration holds extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide, especially in its holdings under Record Group 59 of the United States Department of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which are open and widely available to the public and interested institutions;

(9) The Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries, among them the allies of the Ottoman Empire, against the Armenian Genocide; and

(10) Ambassador Morgenthau explicitly described to the United States Department of State the policy of the Government of the Ottoman Empire as "a campaign of race extermination," and was instructed on July 16, 1915, by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the "Department approves your procedure...to stop Armenian persecution"; and

WHEREAS, it is the policy of this Legislature to affirm and support strong public policy positions such as this recommendation of the University of Southern Mississippi's SGA Senate:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby affirm the resolution of the University of Southern Mississippi's Student Government Association Senate recommending the State of Mississippi of the United States of America pass resolutions denouncing the events that transpired in the Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923 as genocide.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be furnished to the Student Government Association President Mr. Jeffery George, President of the University of Southern Mississippi Dr. Rodney Bennett, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Joe Paul, Dean of Students Dr. Eddie Holloway, Associate Dean of Students and SGA Advisor Mrs. Wynde Fitts, Mr. Toby Barker Mississippi State House Representative for District 102, the Student Printz and University Archives and to the members of the Capitol Press Corps.