A PROCLAMATION
OF THE COMMERCE CITY COUNCIL
DESIGNATING APRIL 24, 2022 AS
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERANCE DAY
IN THE CITY OF COMMERCE
WHEREAS, on April 24, 1915, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire perpetrated what is known by historians as the ‘‘First Genocide of the Twentieth Century;” and WHEREAS, The Armenian Genocide resulted in the death of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children, the forced exile of more than 500,000 innocents, death marches leading to the Syrian desert and the loss of the traditional Armenian homelands and cultural artifacts; and WHEREAS, some Turks and others jeopardized their safety in order to protect Armenians from the crimes being perpetrated by the Ottoman regime; and WHEREAS, Adolph Hitler, in persuading his army commanders on the eve of World War II to mercilessly persecute and kill millions of Jews, Poles, Catholics, Gypsies, homosexuals and other peoples, used the Armenian Genocide as an example of mass slaughter without international repercussion; and WHEREAS, to date, 29 countries and 48 US states have officially recognized the mass killings of the Armenian people within the Ottoman empire as genocide, as have most genocide scholars and historians; and WHEREAS, despite the overwhelming weight of evidence, the Republic of Turkey, as successor state of the Ottoman Empire, steadfastly denies the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide; and WHEREAS, those denials only fuel the grief and pain of the few remaining survivors and their families, desecrate the memory of the victims, and cause the continuing schism between the Armenian and Turkish peoples; and WHEREAS, California has become home to the largest population of Armenians in the United States, most of whom have enriched our state through leadership in business, government, academia, medicine, agriculture and the arts; and WHEREAS, Commerce is proud to join the Armenian-American community in its commemoration of the 107th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in an effort to educate others about the crimes of genocide committed against the Armenian people; and WHEREAS, it is important to remind ourselves about the human atrocities that have taken place so that they never manifest in our world again:
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COMMERCE HEREBY PROCLAIMS APRIL 24, 2022 AS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERANCE DAY IN THE CITY OF COMMERCE.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 12th day of April 2022.
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ATTEST: Mayor
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Lena Shumway
City Clerk