Take Action Now and Support this Important Resolution
The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (“ICAN”) strongly supports and fully endorses H.Res 296 affirming the United States’ recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide. This bipartisan resolution puts the United States Congress formally and officially on the record acknowledging the genocide which claimed over 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 to 1923.
“We’re proud to stand with our Armenian American friends in support of this important resolution,” said Dillon Hosier, Chief Advocacy Officer at ICAN. “It’s time that Congress does the right thing: officially acknowledge and support public education of the Armenian genocide.”
The resolution:
- acknowledges the work of U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry J. Morganthou who, between 1913 and 1916, led efforts amongst many nations in the region to stop Armenian persecution,
- notes efforts by President Woodrow Wilson to establish a Near East Relief fund of over $116,000,000 organized in response to the Armenian Genocide,
- affirms that it is official United States government policy to “identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by ‘strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of foreign assistance to support appropriate transitional justice measures, including criminal accountability, for past atrocities’ to prevent atrocities”
- recalls comments by Adolf Hitler, “[w]ho, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”, after ignoring objections by his military commanders who were opposed to the invasion of Poland; setting the stage for the Holocaust;
- and resolves that the United States should commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance, oppose efforts to deny the genocide, encourage education and public understanding of the facts of the Armenian Genocide.
Over the past year, ICAN has worked with the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) in Nevada and Massachusetts supporting state-level legislation that promotes public education of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide.
ICAN also supports the Senate companion of this resolution S.Res 150 and encourages Senators to follow the U.S. House and pass their version of this resolution.
