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Bipartisan Resolution Honors 1.5 Million Victims of Armenian Genocide

Date: Nov. 18, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs


BIPARTISAN RESOLUTION HONORS 1.5 MILLION VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today joined a bipartisan group of Senators in introducing a resolution to honor the 1.5 million Armenians killed and the half-million survivors exiled by the Ottoman government between 1915 and 1923. April 2005 marked the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

"The Armenian Genocide was the Twentieth Century's first genocide, a vicious, organized crime against humanity that included murder, deportation, torture, and slave labor. U.S. clarity on this historical fact is of utmost importance and long past due," Durbin said.

The Resolution calls on the President to issue a yearly message to commemorate the Armenian Genocide and to ensure that U.S. foreign policy "reflects appropriate understanding" concerning human rights and ethnic cleansing relating to the Armenian Genocide.

"Recognizing the Armenian Genocide takes on added importance in the face of the genocide occurring right now in the Darfur region of Sudan," Durbin said. "We must honor those who died in the Armenian Genocide by recognizing their suffering and by dedicating ourselves to preventing human suffering and tragedy in the future."

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=249171&&

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