Full Text of HR0870 103rd General Assembly
HR0870 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY | | | HR0870 | | LRB103 41716 MST 74937 r |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION | 2 | | WHEREAS, Illinois and the United States have been a refuge | 3 | | for those seeking protection from persecution and oppression, | 4 | | whether by reason of religion or nationality; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Those who cherish freedom can never take it for | 6 | | granted, and those who respect justice can never be completely | 7 | | secure in it; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, Those who value freedom are duty-bound to promote | 9 | | it and to protect it by using their voices and influence to | 10 | | meet the challenges that might confront its sanctity and to | 11 | | help protect the life and liberty of those who depend upon | 12 | | freedom and human dignity; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, No other human rights violation deserves greater | 14 | | vigilance, protest, and recognition while demanding the | 15 | | strongest condemnation by freedom loving people than the crime | 16 | | of genocide; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, For the Greeks of Asia Minor, Pontos, and Eastern | 18 | | Thrace, the horror and inhumanity of this savagely brutal | 19 | | crime began as pogroms in 1913 to 1923 by the Ottoman and | 20 | | Kemalist governments, in what is today known as Turkey; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In July and August 1914, months before the | 2 | | Ottoman entry into World War I, Greek Christian men between | 3 | | the ages of 18 and 48 years were drafted into the notorious | 4 | | labor battalions of the Ottoman army where most of them died | 5 | | due to brutal labor conditions, malnutrition, and extreme | 6 | | weather; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, The Honorable George Horton, U.S. Consul General | 8 | | in Smyrna at the time of the genocides, affirmed that from 1914 | 9 | | to 1923 Greeks of Asia Minor and Thrace endured immeasurable | 10 | | cruelty resulting in genocide during a systematic Ottoman | 11 | | government-sanctioned campaign to kill and to displace the | 12 | | Greek population; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, The Asia Minor Greeks and the Pontian Greeks | 14 | | whose ancestors had lived for three millennia in communities | 15 | | in Anatolia and along the shores and in the mountains of the | 16 | | Black Sea coast, in what is today northern Turkey, were | 17 | | singled out by the Ottoman and Kemalist authorities for murder | 18 | | and expulsion from their ancestral lands, resulting in | 19 | | approximately one million deaths; and | 20 | | WHEREAS, The biblical city of Smyrna, once called The | 21 | | Jewel of the Mediterranean, was a cosmopolitan hub settled by | 22 | | Greeks in 1200 BCE and populated by large, highly-educated | 23 | | Greek, Armenian, and Jewish communities with a flourishing |
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| 1 | | commercial and middle-class; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, In September 1922, Smyrna was sacked, and the | 3 | | Greek and Armenian quarters were set on fire and destroyed by | 4 | | Kemalist forces; tens of thousands of Smyrna's Greek and | 5 | | Armenian inhabitants were then massacred, turning the pier of | 6 | | Smyrna into a scene of death and desperation, forcing many to | 7 | | jump to their deaths rather than be cut down by Kemal's | 8 | | soldiers or consumed by the flames; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, The remaining Christian inhabitants of Anatolia | 10 | | were then forced to give up their homes, businesses, and their | 11 | | ancient connection to the land in a forced exchange of | 12 | | populations through the Lausanne Agreement, sanctioned by the | 13 | | U.S. and western nations, in order to safeguard their lives | 14 | | from future massacres; it marked the end of 3,000 years of | 15 | | Greek presence and historic contributions to the western | 16 | | world; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Silence is the final stage of genocide as it | 18 | | erases all memory of the victims of the crime as if they never | 19 | | existed; this silence can only encourage future genocides by | 20 | | other rogue nations that feel unbound by international laws; | 21 | | and | 22 | | WHEREAS, In an historic 2007 resolution, the International |
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| 1 | | Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), representing hundreds | 2 | | of the world's leading genocide scholars, affirmed the fact of | 3 | | the genocide against the Pontian and other Asia Minor Greeks | 4 | | and Assyrians as comparable to the genocide of the Armenians; | 5 | | and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Acknowledgment of these past crimes should serve | 7 | | as a deterrent to future aggressions by the Turkish government | 8 | | and all other governments around the world; therefore, be it | 9 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 10 | | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 11 | | we recognize the genocide of the Greeks of Pontos, Asia Minor, | 12 | | and Eastern Thrace and urge the Turkish government to do the | 13 | | same as a means of bringing closure to the descendants of the | 14 | | victims of these genocides and preventing such atrocities in | 15 | | the future; and be it further | 16 | | RESOLVED, That we act in the spirit of justice and | 17 | | humanity and recognize September 14, 1922 as the end of their | 18 | | presence in their homeland of 3,000 years. |
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