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WHEN US PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN RECOGNIZED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
February 17, 2015
President Ronald Reagan: Like the genocide of the Armenians before it,
and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it -- and like too
many other such persecutions of too many other peoples -- the lessons
of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.
During the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack
Obama, recognizing the Armenian genocide as such--by referring to
it as a genocide--has been a problem even though each president,
while campaigning for the office, promised that he would endorse a
resolution recognizing the genocide.
Turkish lobbying pressures have proven effective to ward off just such
a recognition. Turkey to this day denies that a genocide took place,
claiming, against an overwhelming majority of evidence and historians,
that while a large number of Armenians died between 1915 and 1923,
it was as a result of war, not genocide.
President Reagan did not object to referring to the genocide by its
name, as he did in a 1981 proclamation recognizing the Holocaust. The
full text of that proclamation follows:
Proclamation 4838 -- Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust
April 22, 1981 By the President of the United States of America
The Congress of the United States established the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council to create a living memorial to the victims
of the Nazi Holocaust. Its purpose: So mankind will never lose memory
of that terrible moment in time when the awful specter of death camps
stained the history of our world.
When America and its allies liberated those haunting places of
terror and sick destructiveness, the world came to a vivid and tragic
understanding of the evil it faced in those years of the Second World
War. Each of those names -- Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka
and so many others -- became synonymous with horror.
The millions of deaths, the gas chambers, the inhuman crematoria, and
the thousands of people who somehow survived with lifetime scars are
all now part of the conscience of history. Forever must we remember
just how precious is civilization, how important is liberty, and how
heroic is the human spirit.
Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of
the Cambodians which followed it -- and like too many other such
persecutions of too many other peoples -- the lessons of the Holocaust
must never be forgotten.
As part of its mandate, the Holocaust Memorial Council has been
directed to designate annual Days of Remembrance as a national,
civic commemoration of the Holocaust, and to encourage and sponsor
appropriate observances throughout the United States. This year,
the national Days of Remembrance will be observed on April 26 through
May 3.
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby ask the people of the United States to observe
this solemn anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps,
with appropriate study, prayers and commemoration, as a tribute to
the spirit of freedom and justice which Americans fought so hard and
well to preserve.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 22nd day of April,
in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-one, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifth.
Ronald Reagan
President of the United States of America
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/61747
February 17, 2015
President Ronald Reagan: Like the genocide of the Armenians before it,
and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it -- and like too
many other such persecutions of too many other peoples -- the lessons
of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.
During the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack
Obama, recognizing the Armenian genocide as such--by referring to
it as a genocide--has been a problem even though each president,
while campaigning for the office, promised that he would endorse a
resolution recognizing the genocide.
Turkish lobbying pressures have proven effective to ward off just such
a recognition. Turkey to this day denies that a genocide took place,
claiming, against an overwhelming majority of evidence and historians,
that while a large number of Armenians died between 1915 and 1923,
it was as a result of war, not genocide.
President Reagan did not object to referring to the genocide by its
name, as he did in a 1981 proclamation recognizing the Holocaust. The
full text of that proclamation follows:
Proclamation 4838 -- Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust
April 22, 1981 By the President of the United States of America
The Congress of the United States established the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council to create a living memorial to the victims
of the Nazi Holocaust. Its purpose: So mankind will never lose memory
of that terrible moment in time when the awful specter of death camps
stained the history of our world.
When America and its allies liberated those haunting places of
terror and sick destructiveness, the world came to a vivid and tragic
understanding of the evil it faced in those years of the Second World
War. Each of those names -- Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka
and so many others -- became synonymous with horror.
The millions of deaths, the gas chambers, the inhuman crematoria, and
the thousands of people who somehow survived with lifetime scars are
all now part of the conscience of history. Forever must we remember
just how precious is civilization, how important is liberty, and how
heroic is the human spirit.
Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of
the Cambodians which followed it -- and like too many other such
persecutions of too many other peoples -- the lessons of the Holocaust
must never be forgotten.
As part of its mandate, the Holocaust Memorial Council has been
directed to designate annual Days of Remembrance as a national,
civic commemoration of the Holocaust, and to encourage and sponsor
appropriate observances throughout the United States. This year,
the national Days of Remembrance will be observed on April 26 through
May 3.
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby ask the people of the United States to observe
this solemn anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps,
with appropriate study, prayers and commemoration, as a tribute to
the spirit of freedom and justice which Americans fought so hard and
well to preserve.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 22nd day of April,
in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-one, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifth.
Ronald Reagan
President of the United States of America
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/61747