SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares the following: (a) The State of California has officially recognized the Armenian Genocide each year for decades and has repeatedly urged the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and work toward a just resolution, honor its obligations under international treaties and human rights laws, end all forms of religious discrimination and persecution, and return Christian church properties to their rightful owners.
(b) Genocide is defined by the United Nations as an act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
(c) Genocide denial is widely viewed as among the final stages of genocide and serves to perpetuate the effects of genocide even after the active phases of extermination, massacres, forced marches, and deportation have ended.
(d) The government of Turkey has engaged and continues to engage in an ongoing campaign of genocide denial and historical revisionism by refusing to acknowledge its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, refusing to compensate its victims, and actively pursuing a well-funded political lobbying campaign throughout the United States, including in California, to rewrite history and defeat legislation recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
(e) The government
of Turkey has engaged, and continues to engage, in efforts to effect Armenian cultural erasure since the founding of the Republic of Turkey, including, but not limited to, ethnic cleansings and the destruction of sacred Armenian religious sites.
(f) A reference in Turkey by any scholar, journalist, or other person to the massacre and deportation of Armenians in 1915 to 1923, inclusive, as genocide can be criminally prosecuted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.
(g) The State of California is home to the largest Armenian American population in the United States, and Armenians living in California, most of whom are direct descendants of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, have enriched our state through their leadership and contributions in business, agriculture,
academia, government, and the arts, yet continue to suffer the effects of the continued denial campaign by the government of Turkey.
(h) The State of California, as the world’s eighth largest economy, and in accordance with principles of human rights and justice, has taken the lead in adopting legislation to divest from South Africa for its policy of apartheid, Sudan for its genocide in Darfur, and Iran for its support of international terrorism, imposing economic consequences upon regimes that engage in conduct and policy that violate human rights or constitute crimes against humanity.
(i) The State of California, through its Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and its State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS), directly invests public funds in the government of
Turkey, which then reaps profits while actively denying the Armenian Genocide, funding its continued campaign of denial, at least in part, through these investments in its economy.
(j) By investing public funds in the government of Turkey, the State of California as the embodiment of its citizens contradicts its longstanding, just position of recognizing the Armenian Genocide and urging the government of Turkey to acknowledge its responsibility and work toward a just resolution by honoring its obligations under international treaties and human rights laws, to end all forms of religious discrimination and persecution, and to return Christian church properties to their rightful owners.
(k) It is the government of Turkey, not the people of Turkey, that is responsible for Turkey’s continued
egregious violations of human rights and active pursuit of genocide denial, cultural erasure, and historical revisionism.
(l) PERS currently has investment holdings in bonds directly issued by the Republic of Turkey in excess of $700,000,000.
(m) STRS currently has investment holdings in bonds directly issued by the Republic of Turkey of approximately $70,000,000.
(n) Investment in the Republic of Turkey enables its government to continue to deny justice to the Armenian people.
(o) Divesting these funds would ensure that the State of California is in no way complicit in the continued denial of the Armenian Genocide by the government of Turkey and
would encourage said government to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and to reach a fair and just resolution of reparations for the survivors of the Armenian Genocide.