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THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />A PROCLAMATION <br />for <br />ARMENIAN MARTYRS DAY <br />WHEREAS, between 1915-1923, the extermination of more than one and one-half million <br />Armenians and the deportation of countless other Armenians took place by the Ottoman <br />Turks; and <br />WHEREAS, during this atrocity, Armenians were forced to witness the slaughter of their <br />relatives and the loss of their ancestral homelands; and <br />WHEREAS, Armenians assert that the government of modern-day Turkey refuses to <br />recognize the facts of genocide; and <br />WHEREAS, the denial of the Armenian genocide by the present day Turkish government <br />serves to taint the history and disavows Armenians of the right to their homelands and <br />heritage; and <br />WHEREAS, ancestral Armenian lands taken by the Ottoman Turks have not been returned <br />to the Armenian people, nor have the Armenians received compensation for their losses; and <br />WHEREAS, Armenians traditionally designated April 24`~ as ARMENIAN MARTYRS <br />DAY, in recognition and remembrance of those who died during the Armenian genocide; and <br />WHEREAS, Orange County finds it equally important to remember the atrocities committed <br />against others in the name or religious, racial and ethnic cleansing so that we do not forget the <br />inevitable outcome of our daily intolerances; and <br />WHEREAS, it is important to remember history so that mistakes of the past are not repeated <br />for future generations; <br />NOW, THEREFORE, do we, the Commissioners of Orange County, proclaim Apri124, <br />2003 as Armenian Martyrs Day and commend this observance to all Orange County citizens. <br />THIS THE 15TH DAY OF APRIL, 2003. <br />Margaret Brown, Chair <br />Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />