WHEREAS, the University of California,  has a sizable population of Armenians, and each April, students join the Armenian-American community in commemorating the Armenian Genocide; and

WHEREAS, Irvine is home to one of the largest Armenian Diaspora communities in the world; and

WHEREAS, the Armenian people, along with other minorities of the Ottoman Empire in the years of and surrounding World War I, were subjected to outright massacre and deportations that spared no one – women, children, and the elderly included – as well as instances of direct or indirect forced transmission of children to non-Armenian  households; and (1)

WHEREAS, numerous governmental and non-governmental agents of the time bore witness to the events of the Armenian Genocide – including agents of those countries either neutral or allied to the Ottoman Empire; and (2)

WHEREAS, the events that befell the Armenian people in the years of and surrounding World War I have been deemed genocide from both the historical and the legal perspective by numerous national and international academic as well as governmental bodies – including the state of California; and (3)

WHEREAS, this genocide has resulted in the elimination of the Armenian people from their historic homeland of over 3000 years through the criminal loss of property and life; and (4)

WHEREAS, the government of the Republic of Turkey is engaged in a campaign of genocide denial that employs official and unofficial agents and uses threatening as well as blackmailing tactics against those governments and institutions that attempt to discuss and recognize the Armenian Genocide; and

WHEREAS, the Ottoman Empire and subsequent governments of the Republic of Turkey including the present government have followed a policy of destruction, re-appropriation, and intentional neglect of historical Armenian landmarks and other physical evidence of the no longer present Armenian community of the area; and (5)

WHEREAS, 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; and (6)

WHEREAS, the Associated Students of the University of California, Irvine (ASUCI) has been at the forefront in encouraging awareness of such atrocities in order to prevent recurrence of these crimes; now, therefore,

LET BE IT RESOLVED, the ASUCI solemnly commemorates the Armenian Genocide and condemns those attempts made by governments as well as other entities, both public and private, to distort the historical reality and legal relevance of the Armenian Genocide to the descendents of its survivors and humanity as a whole; and

LET BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the ASUCI supports the efforts of the Armenian-American community at UC Irvine to establish April 24 as the official Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide; and

LET BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution shall be sent to the following: University of California President Janet Napolitano, Chancellor Howard Gillman, Dean of Students and Assistant Vice Chancellor, Student Life and Leadership Rameen Talesh, Executive Vice Chancellor and Interim Provost Michael P. Clark,  Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Thomas A. Parham.

CITATIONS:

(1) http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/

(2) http://www.armenian-genocide.org/, http://www.aaainc.org/genocideintro.htm

(3) http://www.isg-iags.org/ http://groong.usc.edu/ICTJ-analysis.html http://www.armenian-genocide.org/

(4) Contact UCLA Professor (Emeritus) Richard G. Hovannisian (hovannis@history.ucla.edu)

(5) Contact Harvard University faculty member, James Russell (Russell@fas.harvard.edu) who has done work on this subject. Also visit http://www.unesco.org

(6) http://www.anca.org/action_alerts/action_docs.php?docsid=15