IV 

House Calendar No. 240 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 252 

[Report No. 111–622] 

Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United 

States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning 

issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 17, 2009 

Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. RADANOVICH, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KIRK, Mr. 

BERMAN, Mr. CANTOR, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. ROYCE, 

Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Ms. WATSON, Mr. BILIRAKIS, 

Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. SENSENBRENNER, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. 

WU, Mr. SIRES, Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California, Mr. BARRETT

of South Carolina, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. WEINER, Mr. HONDA, 

Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. WALZ, Mr. PETERS, Ms. SUTTON, 

Mr. COSTA, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. SOUDER, 

Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey, Mr. WOLF, Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts, 

Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. HIMES, Mr. 

BACA, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. ROTHMAN of New Jersey, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. 

MCCOLLUM, Mr. FATTAH, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. SPACE, Ms. 

DELAURO, Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. POLIS of Colorado, Mr. LANCE, Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Mr. OLVER, Mr. 

GRIJALVA, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. 

SARBANES, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. TITUS, Mr. STARK, Mr. JACKSON of 

Illinois, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. TSONGAS, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Ms. WOOLSEY, 

Mr. DREIER, Mr. NUNES, Mr. TONKO, and Mr. TIERNEY) submitted the 

following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010 

Additional sponsors: Mr. BECERRA, Mr. NADLER of New York, Mr. FILNER, 

Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. 


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MATSUI, Mr. COSTELLO, Mr. HOLT, Ms. WATERS, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. 

VISCLOSKY, Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. PETERSON, Mr. 

FRELINGHUYSEN, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. LYNCH, Mrs. 

MILLER of Michigan, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. MCKEON, Mr. HINCHEY, Ms. 

SCHWARTZ, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. FARR, Ms. 

DEGETTE, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. HOYER, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. BARTLETT, 

Mr. KILDEE, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. 

PERRIELLO, Mr. SALAZAR, Mr. MINNICK, Mrs. LOWEY, Ms. BERKLEY, 

Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. ADLER of New Jersey, Mr. SCHAUER, Mr. QUIGLEY, 

Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, Mr. RUSH, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. 

DEFAZIO, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. MCCARTHY of California, Mr. MATHESON, 

Mrs. BONO MACK, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. HALL of New York, 

Mr. ISRAEL, Mr. GALLEGLY, Ms. RICHARDSON, Mr. ISSA, Mr. BILBRAY, 

Mr. LATOURETTE, Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California, Ms. CHU, Mr. 

GARY G. MILLER of California, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. 

MAFFEI, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. HELLER, Mr. MICHAUD, Mr. 

DOYLE, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. RYAN

of Ohio, and Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010 

Deleted sponsor: Mr. BARRETT of South Carolina (added March 17, 2009); 

deleted March 23, 2009) 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010 

Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed 

RESOLUTION 

Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy 

of the United States reflects appropriate understanding 

and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, 

ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United 

States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Resolved, 

2 SHORT TITLE

3 SEC. 1. 


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1 This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Affirmation of 

2 the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Reso3 lution’’. 

4 FINDINGS

5 SEC. 2. 

6 The House of Representatives finds the following: 

7 (1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and car8 ried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, re9 sulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, 

10 of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 

11 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and 

12 which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year 

13 presence of Armenians in their historic homeland. 

14 (2) On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, England, 

15 France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly 

16 charging for the first time ever another government of 

17 committing ‘‘a crime against humanity’’. 

18 (3) This joint statement stated ‘‘the Allied Govern19 ments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they 

20 will hold personally responsible for these crimes all mem21 bers of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their 

22 agents who are implicated in such massacres’’. 

23 (4) The post-World War I Turkish Government in24 dicted the top leaders involved in the ‘‘organization and 

25 execution’’ of the Armenian Genocide and in the ‘‘mas26 sacre and destruction of the Armenians’’. 


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1 (5) In a series of courts-martial, officials of the 

2 Young Turk Regime were tried and convicted, as charged, 

3 for organizing and executing massacres against the Arme4 nian people. 

5 (6) The chief organizers of the Armenian Genocide, 

6 Minister of War Enver, Minister of the Interior Talaat, 

7 and Minister of the Navy Jemal were all condemned to 

8 death for their crimes, however, the verdicts of the courts 

9 were not enforced. 

10 (7) The Armenian Genocide and these domestic judi11 cial failures are documented with overwhelming evidence 

12 in the national archives of Austria, France, Germany, 

13 Great Britain, Russia, the United States, the Vatican and 

14 many other countries, and this vast body of evidence at15 tests to the same facts, the same events, and the same 

16 consequences. 

17 (8) The United States National Archives and Record 

18 Administration holds extensive and thorough documenta19 tion on the Armenian Genocide, especially in its holdings 

20 under Record Group 59 of the United States Department 

21 of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which are open and 

22 widely available to the public and interested institutions. 

23 (9) The Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United States 

24 Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, 

25 organized and led protests by officials of many countries, 


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1 among them the allies of the Ottoman Empire, against 

2 the Armenian Genocide. 

3 (10) Ambassador Morgenthau explicitly described to 

4 the United States Department of State the policy of the 

5 Government of the Ottoman Empire as ‘‘a campaign of 

6 race extermination,’’ and was instructed on July 16, 1915, 

7 by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that 

8 the ‘‘Department approves your procedure . . . to stop 

9 Armenian persecution’’. 

10 (11) Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 of February 

11 9, 1916, resolved that ‘‘the President of the United States 

12 be respectfully asked to designate a day on which the citi13 zens of this country may give expression to their sympathy 

14 by contributing funds now being raised for the relief of 

15 the Armenians’’, who at the time were enduring ‘‘starva16 tion, disease, and untold suffering’’. 

17 (12) President Woodrow Wilson concurred and also 

18 encouraged the formation of the organization known as 

19 Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress, which 

20 contributed some $116,000,000 from 1915 to 1930 to aid 

21 Armenian Genocide survivors, including 132,000 orphans 

22 who became foster children of the American people. 

23 (13) Senate Resolution 359, dated May 11, 1920, 

24 stated in part, ‘‘the testimony adduced at the hearings 

25 conducted by the sub-committee of the Senate Committee 


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1 on Foreign Relations have clearly established the truth of 

2 the reported massacres and other atrocities from which 

3 the Armenian people have suffered’’. 

4 (14) The resolution followed the April 13, 1920, re5 port to the Senate of the American Military Mission to 

6 Armenia led by General James Harbord, that stated 

7 ‘‘[m]utilation, violation, torture, and death have left their 

8 haunting memories in a hundred beautiful Armenian val9 leys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from 

10 the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages’’. 

11 (15) As displayed in the United States Holocaust Me12 morial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military 

13 commanders to attack Poland without provocation in 

14 1939, dismissed objections by saying ‘‘[w]ho, after all, 

15 speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’’ and 

16 thus set the stage for the Holocaust. 

17 (16) Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘‘geno18 cide’’ in 1944, and who was the earliest proponent of the 

19 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punish20 ment of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a defini21 tive example of genocide in the 20th century. 

22 (17) The first resolution on genocide adopted by the 

23 United Nations at Lemkin’s urging, the December 11, 

24 1946, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 96(1) 

25 and the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and 


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1 Punishment of Genocide itself recognized the Armenian 

2 Genocide as the type of crime the United Nations intended 

3 to prevent and punish by codifying existing standards. 

4 (18) In 1948, the United Nations War Crimes Com5 mission invoked the Armenian Genocide ‘‘precisely . . . 

6 one of the types of acts which the modern term ‘crimes 

7 against humanity’ is intended to cover’’ as a precedent for 

8 the Nuremberg tribunals. 

9 (19) The Commission stated that ‘‘[t]he provisions 

10 of Article 230 of the Peace Treaty of Sevres were obvi11 ously intended to cover, in conformity with the Allied note 

12 of 1915 . . . , offenses which had been committed on 

13 Turkish territory against persons of Turkish citizenship, 

14 though of Armenian or Greek race. This article constitutes 

15 therefore a precedent for Article 6c and 5c of the Nurem16 berg and Tokyo Charters, and offers an example of one 

17 of the categories of ‘crimes against humanity’ as under18 stood by these enactments’’. 

19 (20) House Joint Resolution 148, adopted on April 

20 8, 1975, resolved: ‘‘[t]hat April 24, 1975, is hereby des21 ignated as ‘National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhu22 manity to Man’, and the President of the United States 

23 is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling 

24 upon the people of the United States to observe such day 


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1 as a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, 

2 especially those of Armenian ancestry . . .’’. 

3 (21) President Ronald Reagan in proclamation num4 ber 4838, dated April 22, 1981, stated in part ‘‘like the 

5 genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of 

6 the Cambodians, which followed it—and like too many 

7 other persecutions of too many other people—the lessons 

8 of the Holocaust must never be forgotten’’. 

9 (22) House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on Sep10 tember 10, 1984, resolved: ‘‘[t]hat April 24, 1985, is here11 by designated as ‘National Day of Remembrance of Man’s 

12 Inhumanity to Man’, and the President of the United 

13 States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation 

14 calling upon the people of the United States to observe 

15 such day as a day of remembrance for all the victims of 

16 genocide, especially the one and one-half million people of 

17 Armenian ancestry . . .’’. 

18 (23) In August 1985, after extensive study and delib19 eration, the United Nations SubCommission on Preven20 tion of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities voted 

21 14 to 1 to accept a report entitled ‘‘Study of the Question 

22 of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Geno23 cide,’’ which stated ‘‘[t]he Nazi aberration has unfortu24 nately not been the only case of genocide in the 20th cen25 tury. Among other examples which can be cited as qualiVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:01 Sep 23, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR252.RH HR252

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1 fying are . . . the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 

2 1915–1916’’. 

3 (24) This report also explained that ‘‘[a]t least 

4 1,000,000, and possibly well over half of the Armenian 

5 population, are reliably estimated to have been killed or 

6 death marched by independent authorities and eye-wit7 nesses. This is corroborated by reports in United States, 

8 German and British archives and of contemporary dip9 lomats in the Ottoman Empire, including those of its ally 

10 Germany.’’. 

11 (25) The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 

12 an independent Federal agency, unanimously resolved on 

13 April 30, 1981, that the United States Holocaust Memo14 rial Museum would include the Armenian Genocide in the 

15 Museum and has since done so. 

16 (26) Reviewing an aberrant 1982 expression (later 

17 retracted) by the United States Department of State as18 serting that the facts of the Armenian Genocide may be 

19 ambiguous, the United States Court of Appeals for the 

20 District of Columbia in 1993, after a review of documents 

21 pertaining to the policy record of the United States, noted 

22 that the assertion on ambiguity in the United States 

23 record about the Armenian Genocide ‘‘contradicted long24 standing United States policy and was eventually re25 tracted’’. 


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1 (27) On June 5, 1996, the House of Representatives 

2 adopted an amendment to House Bill 3540 (the Foreign 

3 Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Ap4 propriations Act, 1997) to reduce aid to Turkey by 

5 $3,000,000 (an estimate of its payment of lobbying fees 

6 in the United States) until the Turkish Government ac7 knowledged the Armenian Genocide and took steps to 

8 honor the memory of its victims. 

9 (28) President William Jefferson Clinton, on April 

10 24, 1998, stated: ‘‘This year, as in the past, we join with 

11 Armenian-Americans throughout the nation in commemo12 rating one of the saddest chapters in the history of this 

13 century, the deportations and massacres of a million and 

14 a half Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the years 

15 1915–1923.’’. 

16 (29) President George W. Bush, on April 24, 2004, 

17 stated: ‘‘On this day, we pause in remembrance of one 

18 of the most horrible tragedies of the 20th century, the an19 nihilation of as many as 1,500,000 Armenians through 

20 forced exile and murder at the end of the Ottoman Em21 pire.’’. 

22 (30) Despite the international recognition and affir23 mation of the Armenian Genocide, the failure of the do24 mestic and international authorities to punish those re25 sponsible for the Armenian Genocide is a reason why simiVerDate Mar 15 2010 01:01 Sep 23, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR252.RH HR252

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1 lar genocides have recurred and may recur in the future, 

2 and that a just resolution will help prevent future geno3 cides. 

4 DECLARATION OF POLICY

5 SEC. 3. 

6 The House of Representatives— 

7 (1) calls upon the President to ensure that the for8 eign policy of the United States reflects appropriate un9 derstanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to 

10 human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented 

11 in the United States record relating to the Armenian 

12 Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a 

13 just resolution; and 

14 (2) calls upon the President in the President’s annual 

15 message commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued 

16 on or about April 24, to accurately characterize the sys17 tematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Arme18 nians as genocide and to recall the proud history of United 

19 States intervention in opposition to the Armenian Geno20 cide. 


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House Calendar No. 240 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 252 

[Report No. 111–622] 

RESOLUTION 

Calling upon the President to ensure that the forfor other purposes. record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and and genocide documented in the United States issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, priate understanding and sensitivity concerning eign policy of the United States reflects approSEPTEMBER 22, 2010 

Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 

printed 


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