committed on Turkish territory against persons of
Turkish citizenship, though of Armenian or Greek
race. This article constitutes therefore a precedent
for Article 6c and 5c of the Nuremberg and Tokyo
Charters, and offers an example of one of the cat-
egories of ‘crimes against humanity’ as understood
by these enactments’’.
(22) The United Nations Commission on
Human Rights adopted in 1985 a report entitled
‘‘Study of the Question of the Prevention and Pun-
ishment of the Crime of Genocide’’, which stated
‘‘[t]he Nazi aberration has unfortunately not been
the only case of genocide in the twentieth century.
Among other examples which can be cited as quali-
fying are . . . the Ottoman massacre of Armenians
in 1915-1916’’.
(23) This report also explained that ‘‘[a]t least
1 million, and possibly well over half of the Arme-
nian population, are reliably estimated to have been
killed or death marched by independent authorities
and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in
United States, German and British archives and of
contemporary diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, in-
cluding those of its ally Germany’’.
(24) The tragedy of the Armenian Genocide has
been acknowledged by countries and international
bodies such as Argentina, Belgium, Canada, the
Council of Europe, Cyprus, the European Par-
liament, France, Great Britain, Greece, Lebanon,
Russia, the United Nations, the United States, and
Uruguay.
(25) The United States Holocaust Memorial
Council, an independent Federal agency, unani-
mously resolved on April 30, 1981, that the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum would include
the Armenian Genocide in the Museum and has
since done so.
(26) President Reagan in proclamation number
4838, dated April 22, 1981, stated in part ‘‘like the
genocide of the Armenians before it, and the geno-
cide of the Cambodians, which followed it—and like
too many other persecutions of too many other peo-
ple—the lessons of the holocaust must never be for-
gotten’’.
(27) President Bush, in 1988, speaking of the
Armenian Genocide, stated ‘‘we must consciously
and conscientiously recognize the genocides of the
past—the enormous tragedies that have darkened
this century and that haunt us still. We must not
only commemorate the courage of the victims and of
their survivors, but we must also remind ourselves
that civilization cannot be taken for granted. . . . We
must all be vigilant against this most heinous crime
against humanity’’.
(28) President Bush, in 1988, stated further
‘‘[t]he United States must acknowledge the at-
tempted genocide of the Armenian people in the last
years of the Ottoman Empire, based on the testi-
mony of survivors, scholars, and indeed our own rep-
resentatives at the time, if we are to insure that
such horrors are not repeated’’.
(29) President Clinton, on August 13, 1992,
stated ‘‘[t]he Genocide of 1915, years of communist
dictatorship, and the devastating earthquake of
1988 have caused great suffering in Armenia during
this century’’.
(30) Reviewing an aberrant 1982 expression
(later retracted) by the United States Department of
State asserting that the facts of the Armenian Geno-
cide may be ambiguous, the United States Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1993, after
a review of documents pertaining to the policy
record of the United States, noted that the assertion
on ambiguity in the United States record about the
Armenian 
Genocide 
‘‘contradicted 
longstanding
United States policy and was eventually retracted’’.
(31) Despite the international recognition and
affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, the failure of
the domestic and international authorities to punish
those responsible for the Armenian Genocide is a
reason why similar genocides have recurred and may
recur in the future, and that a proper judicial and
firm response, holding the guilty accountable and re-
quiring the prompt enforcement of verdicts would
have spared humanity needless suffering.
(32) In a commendable letter on April 9, 1999,
Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, then Under Secretary
of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural
Affairs, pledged that the administration would raise
with the Republic of Turkey the issue of the recov-
ery of Armenian assets from the genocide period
held by the Imperial Ottoman Bank.
(33) It is important that all Foreign Service of-
ficers, officials of the United States Department of
State, and any other executive branch employee in-
volved in responding to issues related to human
rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are made fa-
miliar with the United States record relating to the
Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the fail-
ure to enforce the judgments of the Turkish courts
against the responsible officials.
SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY.
The House of Representatives—
(1) calls upon the President to provide for ap-
propriate training and materials to all Foreign Serv-
ice officers, officials of the United States Depart-
ment of State, and any other executive branch em-
ployee involved in responding to issues related to
human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide by fa-
miliarizing them with the United States record relat-
ing to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences
of the failure to enforce the judgments of the Turk-
ish courts against the responsible officials; and
(2) calls upon the President in the President’s
annual message commemorating the Armenian
Genocide issued on or about April 24 to characterize
the systematic and deliberate annihilation of
1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the
proud history of United States intervention in oppo-
sition to the Armenian Genocide.
Æ