Orange County NC Website
THE ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br /> A PROCLAMATION <br /> for <br /> ARMENIAN MARTYRS DAY <br /> IN REMEMBRANCE OF ATROCITIES OF THE 201h CENTURY <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 /> WHERAS, 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 /> WHERAS, ancestral Armenian lands taken by the Ottoman Turks have not been returned to <br /> the Armenian people, nor have the Armenians received compensation for their losses; and <br /> WHERAS,Armenians traditionally designated April 24'x' as ARMENIAN MARTYRS <br /> DAY, in recognition and remembrance of those who died during the Armenian genocide; <br /> and <br /> WHERAS, 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 <br /> the inevitable outcome of our daily intolerances; and <br /> WHERAS, 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 April 24"', <br /> 2002 as Armenian Martyrs Day and commend this observance to all Orange County citizens <br /> in remembrance of the atrocities of the 20'century. <br /> THIS THE 16TH DAY OF APRIL, 2002. <br /> Barry Jac V <br /> Orange my o Commissioner <br />