A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the policy of the United States to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance.

III 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. RES. 150 Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the policy of the United States to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recogni- tion and remembrance. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 9, 2019 Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. MARKEY, Ms. WARREN, Mr. PETERS, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. WYDEN, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. REED, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. GARDNER, Mr. UDALL, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. SANDERS, Ms. KLO- BUCHAR, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. ROMNEY, Mr. CASEY, Mr. BENNET, Ms. ROSEN, Mr. BROWN, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, and Mr. PORTMAN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations DECEMBER 12, 2019 Committee discharged; considered and agreed to RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the policy of the United States to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance. Whereas the United States has a proud history of recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing of an estimated 1,500,000 Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, and providing relief to the survivors of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:16 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR150.ATS SR150 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 SRES 150 ATS Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians; Whereas the Honorable Henry Morgenthau, Sr., United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries against what he described as ‘‘a campaign of race extermination,’’ and, on July 16, 1915, was in- structed by United States Secretary of State Robert Lan- sing that the ‘‘Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian persecution’’; Whereas President Woodrow Wilson encouraged the forma- tion of Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Con- gress, which raised approximately $116,000,000 (more than $2,500,000,000 in 2019 dollars) between 1915 and 1930, and the Senate adopted resolutions condemning the massacres; Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘‘genocide’’ in 1944 and who was the earliest proponent of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in the 20th century; Whereas, as displayed in the United States Holocaust Memo- rial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military com- manders to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying, ‘‘Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’’, setting the stage for the Holocaust; Whereas the United States has officially recognized the Ar- menian Genocide— (1) through the May 28, 1951, written statement of the United States Government to the International Court VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:16 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR150.ATS SR150 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 SRES 150 ATS of Justice regarding the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and Proclama- tion No. 4838 issued by President Ronald Reagan on April 22, 1981; and (2) by House Joint Resolution 148, 94th Congress, agreed to April 8, 1975, and House Joint Resolution 247, 98th Congress, agreed to September 10, 1984; and Whereas the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441) establishes that the prevention of atrocities is a national interest of the United States and affirms that it is the policy of the United States to pursue a United States Government- wide strategy to identify, prevent, and respond to the risk of atrocities by ‘‘strengthening diplomatic response and the effective use of foreign assistance to support appro- priate transitional justice measures, including criminal accountability, for past atrocities’’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that it 1 is the policy of the United States— 2 (1) to commemorate the Armenian Genocide 3 through official recognition and remembrance; 4 (2) to reject efforts to enlist, engage, or other- 5 wise associate the United States Government with 6 denial of the Armenian Genocide or any other geno- 7 cide; and 8 (3) to encourage education and public under- 9 standing of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, in- 10 cluding the role of the United States in humani- 11 tarian relief efforts, and the relevance of the Arme- 12 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:16 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR150.ATS SR150 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 SRES 150 ATS nian Genocide to modern-day crimes against human- 1 ity. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:16 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR150.ATS SR150 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS