Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO BEGIN A FRIENDSHIP CITY AFFILIATION WITH ALAVERDI, ARMENIA (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
In light of an action taken for the first time by Congress to officially designate the 1915 mass killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Mayor Robles is requesting the City Council consider a friendship affiliation with the City of Alaverdi, Armenia that could lead to a Sister City relationship.
On April 24, 1915, at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government, the Armenian people were subjects of a systematic and premediated Genocidal campaign whereby 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children were slaughtered or marched to their deaths in an effort to annihilate the Armenian Nation in the first modern genocide. Hundreds of thousands of women and children were subjected to ethnic cleansing during the period of the modern Republic of Turkey from 1924-1937.
In April of 2015, the City of Carson designated the City as "The City of Carson's Year of Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915" and the month of April of every year thereafter as "Carson's Month of Commemoration for the Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915".
On October 29, 2019, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to formally recognize the Armenian genocide and denounce it. The resolution passed by a vote of 405-to-11. It was the first time a chamber of Congress officially designated the 1915 mass killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
On December 12, 2019, the Senate voted unanimously to recognize the Armenian genocide as a matter of American foreign policy.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Authorize the Mayor to select Alaverdi, Armenia to begin a Friendship City and move towards the establishment of a Sister City...
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