Bill Text: IL HR0765 | 2019-2020 | 101st General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Recognizes the Assyrian Genocide of 1915 as a genocide and reprehensible crime against humanity and honors the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Assyrians who were murdered during the Assyrian Genocide of 1915. Declares August 7, 2020 as "Assyrian Remembrance Day".
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-26 - Added Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Kelly M. Cassidy [HR0765 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2019-HR0765-Introduced.html
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1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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2 | WHEREAS, Assyrians, an ethnic minority group, are the | ||||||
3 | indigenous people of Mesopotamia and have lived in the Middle | ||||||
4 | East since ancient times, including in what is today Turkey, | ||||||
5 | Iraq, Iran, and Syria; and
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6 | WHEREAS, Assyrians, also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs, | ||||||
7 | today live around the world, including over 600,000 in the | ||||||
8 | United States and over 34,000 in Illinois; and
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9 | WHEREAS, Between 1914 and 1923, the Assyrian Genocide | ||||||
10 | occurred, during which the Ottoman Empire murdered over 300,000 | ||||||
11 | Assyrian men, women, and children by methods that included mass | ||||||
12 | executions, death marches, torture, and starvation; and
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13 | WHEREAS, During the Assyrian Genocide, also known as the | ||||||
14 | Seyfo Genocide, the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies also | ||||||
15 | systematically raped and enslaved Assyrian women and girls, | ||||||
16 | forced the Assyrians from their ancestral lands, and pillaged | ||||||
17 | and destroyed their communities; and
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18 | WHEREAS, The massacre of over two million Armenians, | ||||||
19 | Assyrians, Greeks, and other Christian and religious minority | ||||||
20 | populations represented the final culmination of a series of | ||||||
21 | violent persecutions dating back to the late 1800s; and
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1 | WHEREAS, 2020 marks the 105th anniversary of the Armenian, | ||||||
2 | Assyrian, and Greek genocides of 1915, which were part of the | ||||||
3 | planned eradication of those indigenous communities by the | ||||||
4 | Ottoman Turkish Empire, yet to this day, Turkey has still not | ||||||
5 | recognized these genocides; and
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6 | WHEREAS, The denial of genocide is widely recognized as the | ||||||
7 | final stage of genocide, maintaining impunity for the | ||||||
8 | perpetrators of these atrocities and demonstrably paving the | ||||||
9 | way for future genocides; and
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10 | WHEREAS, The resilience and endurance of the Assyrian | ||||||
11 | people is commendable and praiseworthy, despite being victims | ||||||
12 | of an ethnocide that the Islamic State continues today; | ||||||
13 | therefore, be it
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14 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
15 | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
16 | we recognize the Assyrian Genocide of 1915 as a genocide and | ||||||
17 | reprehensible crime against humanity and honor the memory of | ||||||
18 | the hundreds of thousands of Assyrians who were murdered during | ||||||
19 | the Assyrian Genocide of 1915; and be it further
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20 | RESOLVED, That we declare August 7, 2020 as "Assyrian | ||||||
21 | Remembrance Day" in the State of Illinois; and be it further
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1 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | ||||||
2 | presented to the Assyrian National Council of Illinois and the | ||||||
3 | Assyrian American Association of Chicago.
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