Endorsed by UCI Armenian Students’ Association (ASA)

1.WHEREAS, genocide is defined by the United Nations as an act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” [1];

2. WHEREAS, genocide denial is the eighth stage of genocide [2]; →

3. WHEREAS, on March 31, 2015 the Associated Students - University of California, Irvine passed a “Resolution Commemorating the Armenian Genocide and Condemning its Denial”; [3]

4. WHEREAS, the University of California is directly invested in the Republic of Turkey, which reaps the profits of [4] and actively denies the Armenian Genocide [5], a crime perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire and continued by the Republic through ethnic cleansing [6], confiscation of Armenian properties, and the theft of Armenian capital;

5. WHEREAS, the Republic of Turkey has engaged in a campaign of Armenian cultural erasure since the founding of the Republic, including, but not limited to, continuation of ethnic cleansing and the destruction of sacred Armenian religious sites [7];

6. WHEREAS, it is illegal to refer to the massacre and deportation of Armenians in 1915-1923 as genocide in the Republic of Turkey under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code [8];

7. WHEREAS, the Republic of Turkey sanctions historical revision of Armenian Genocide historiography and censors scholarship that acknowledges the crimes as genocide [9];

8. WHEREAS, the University of California as a public academic institution, guided by the principles of academic freedom, contradicts these principles by investing in a government that engages in academic censorship and criminalizes Armenian Genocide scholarship;

9. WHEREAS, the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) investment holdings in bonds directly issued by the Republic of Turkey total $55,432,125 [10];

10. WHEREAS, University of California General Endowment Pool (GEP) investment holdings in bonds directly issued by the Republic of Turkey total $9,652,475 [11];

11. WHEREAS, these investment holdings in bonds directly issued by the Republic of Turkey total a base market value of $65,084,600;

12. WHEREAS, the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) investment holdings in the Export Credit Bank of Turkey total $7,278,500 [12];

13. WHEREAS, the University of California General Endowment Pool (GEP) investment holdings in the Export Credit Bank of Turkey total $1, 683,500 [13];

14. WHEREAS, the Turkish Treasury makes capital contributions to the Export Credit Bank of Turkey as the sole shareholder of the Bank [14];

15. WHEREAS, these investments harm Armenian students, many of whom are living heirs of confiscated properties in Turkey and descendants of the 1.5 million people who were murdered or those who were forcibly relocated during the Armenian Genocide;

16. WHEREAS, investment in the Republic of Turkey enables its government to continue to deny justice to the Armenian people;

17. WHEREAS, divesting these funds would remove the University of California, Irvine student body’s complicity in the Armenian Genocide;

18. WHEREAS, this resolution aims to hold the Republic of Turkey’s government responsible for denying justice to the Armenian people, and is not intended to condemn a specific community or individual;

19. WHEREAS, in 2006, the University of California divested from nine companies that did business in Sudan as a direct result of their contributions to the suffering in the Darfur region during the genocide in Darfur [15];

20. WHEREAS, the California State Assembly Public Employment, Retirement, and Social Security (PERSS) voted to adopt Assembly Bill 1410 by a vote of 6-1-0, calling for divestment of the State of California's investments in the Turkish government [16];  

21. WHEREAS, it is the duty of members of the University of California, Irvine community to uphold “A Commitment to Values” including “respect”, “intellectual curiosity”, “integrity”, and “empathy”; [17]

22. WHEREAS, UCLA and UC Berkeley have unanimously passed similar resolutions calling for the University of California's divestment from the Republic of Turkey; [18]

23. WHEREAS, this resolution has gathered support from Armenian Student Association at UC Irvine

24. LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Associated Students - University of California, Irvine calls upon the University of California, the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Irvine Foundation to divest all financial holdings in the Republic of Turkey immediately;

25. LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Associated Students- University of California, Irvine calls upon the University of California, the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Irvine Foundation to refrain from making any further investments in the Republic of Turkey.

26. LET 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.

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[1] http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf

[2] http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/8stagesofgenocide.html

[3]https://asuci.uci.edu/legislative/legislations/print.php?cnum=R50-77&gov_branch=ASUCI

[4]http://armenianweekly.com/2013/09/23/the-confiscation-of-armenian-properties-an-interview-with-umit-kurt/ cite: The Spirit of Laws: Seeking the Traces of Armenian Genocide in the Laws of Abandoned Property, 2012

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_armeniangenocide.html

[6] http://www.armenian-genocide.org/kemal.html

[7] http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/1861892055.html

[8] http://humanrightsturkey.org/2013/04/03/article-301-end-it-dont-amend-it/

[9] http://armenianweekly.com/2014/12/04/textbooks/

[10] http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/invpol/UCRP_Holdings.pdf

[11] http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/invpol/GEP_Holdings.pdf

[12] http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/invpol/UCRP_Holdings.pdf

[13] http://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/_files/invpol/GEP_Holdings.pdf

[14] https://www.eximbank.gov.tr/EN,1193/about-us.html

[15] http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/6302.html

[16]http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/asm/ab_1401-1450/ab_1410_bill_20150227_introduced.pdf

[17]http://chancellor-test.cwis.uci.edu/values/

[18]https://www.usac.ucla.edu/documents/resolutions/ASA%20Divestment%20Resolution%20amended%2001-20-15.pdf ; https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B7_j_4L-LvIWc1l3cTEwTGZWVEE&usp=sharing&tid=0B7_j_4L-LvIWd0pIaldkVFBMRDg#list