TP&J COM. IN CALIFORNIA
Turkish Peace and Justice Committee California
P. O. Box. 866 Sacramento, CA 95812-866 Tel: 530 297-1655 turkishpjc@gmail.com
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Update from California legislature
Bad news:
CA Senator Wyland introduced an SB 234.
Approximately 4 year ago, former Senator Scott introduced a bill that allowed genocide survivors or their descendents to go to public school K-12 classrooms to tell their genocide stories orally. Implementation of these talks in the classroom was optional. Senator Wyland’s bill SB 234 makes it mandatory for schools to include it in their curriculum. And compensate these people (clowns) that participate in this subject.
The intention of this bill (SB 234) is to allow children to be brainwashed by the so-called genocide survivors. By putting on theatrical shows, they will brainwash and transfer their hatred to the naive and innocent American children. The end result of this bill will demonize the Turkish people and their nation.
Some people might not see the importance of this affair. Unfortunately, this occurrence is very dangerous for us (Turkish nation and its people) and for our next generation (our children). In the business world and State Capitol, I am already encountering graduates form UCLA and other schools that were brainwashed and have negative feelings against Turkey and the Turkish people.
I vigorously worked to defeat Senator Scott’s bill but couldn’t succeed. Know that we have a second chance to make our voice heard and heard clearly. We have no choice but to stop this nonsensical political bigotry. I am begging every one of you. Please take all the necessary steps to organize and fight back for the sake of our country and our next generation.
I am not going to plea for help again. I am very frustrated with chasing bill after bill; it never ends. I do not have the time and energy to do so. I have no choice but to direct my limited energy and resources to the objective. Even though in the last 12 years we did accomplish some successes, we have not overcome this problem fully, and this is frustrating me. Many times I intended to quit but the love of my country stopped me.
I am attaching bill SB 234 for your information.
In addition to SB 234, Assembly member Krekorian introduced a resolution AJR 14 relative to the Armenian Genocide. I was waiting for this resolution. This type of resolution comes up every year for approximately the last forty years. Because I knew it is coming up, I started lobbying against it since January. Before that, I volunteered for the election campaign. Every year it is getting harder for them to pass the resolution, but we were not able to stop it completely.
For some reason, our community is not sensitive on this issue. The so-called Armenian genocide resolution is the main source of fuel to start other laws and resolutions. I believe that if we can succeed to stop this so-called Armenian genocide resolution, we will be able to stop other laws and resolutions that relate to this subject.
Some might ask: what should I do? I don’t know, what is your intention and available resources? I suggest doing something such as: write a letter containing one sentence or even one paragraph; call and visit your senators and assembly members. Organize groups…..
Respectfully yours,
Karahan Mete
CURRENT BILL STATUS
MEASURE : S.B. No. 234
AUTHOR(S) : Wyland.
TOPIC : Curriculum: oral histories: genocide.
HOUSE LOCATION : SEN
+LAST AMENDED DATE : 04/13/2009
TYPE OF BILL :
Active
Non-Urgency
Non-Appropriations
Majority Vote Required
State-Mandated Local Program
Fiscal
Non-Tax Levy
LAST HIST. ACT. DATE: 04/13/2009
LAST HIST. ACTION : From committee with author\’s amendments. Read second time. Amended. Re-referred to Com. on ED. Set for hearing April 29.
COMM. LOCATION : SEN EDUCATION
HEARING DATE : 04/29/2009
TITLE : An act to amend Section 51225.3 of the Education Code, relating to curriculum.
BILL NUMBER: SB 234 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Senator Wyland
FEBRUARY 24, 2009
An act to amend Section 51225.3 of the Education Code, relating to curriculum.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL\’S DIGEST
SB 234, as amended, Wyland. Curriculum: oral histories: genocide.
(1) Existing law requires each pupil completing grade 12 to satisfy certain requirements as a condition of receiving a diploma of graduation from high school. These requirements include the successful passage of the high school exit examination and the completion of designated coursework in grades 9 to 12, inclusive. The coursework requirements include the completion of 3 courses in social studies, including United States history and geography, world history, culture, and geography, a one-semester course in American government and civics, and a one-semester course in economics. This bill, commencing with the 2010-11 school year, would prohibit a pupil from receiving credit for passing a course in United States history and geography, or in world history, culture, and geography, without exposure in that course to an oral history component, as defined, specifically related to genocides , as specified . To the extent that school districts would be required to provide a higher level of service in order for pupils to meet this requirement, the bill would create a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 51225.3 of the Education Code is amended to read:
51225.3. (a) Commencing with the 1988-89 school year, no pupil shall receive a diploma of graduation from high school who, while in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, has not completed all of the following:
(1) At least the following numbers of courses in the subjects specified, each course having a duration of one year, unless otherwise specified.
(A) Three courses in English.
(B) Two courses in mathematics.
(C) Two courses in science, including biological and physical sciences.
(D) (i) Three courses in social studies, including United States history and geography; world history, culture, and geography; a one-semester course in American government and civics, and a one-semester course in economics.
(ii) Commencing with the 2010-11 school year, a pupil shall not receive credit for passing a course in United States history and geography, or in world history, culture, and geography, world history, culture, and geography, without
exposure to an oral history component in that course, specifically related to genocides , including, but not limited to, the Darfur, Rwandan, Cambodian, Jewish Holocaust, or Armenian genocides . As used in this clause, “exposure to an oral history component” includes, but is not necessarily limited to, in-person testimony, video, or a multimedia option , such as a DVD or online video .
(E) One course in visual or performing arts or foreign language. For the purposes of satisfying the requirement specified in this subparagraph, a course in American Sign Language shall be deemed a course in foreign language.
(F) Two courses in physical education, unless the pupil has been exempted pursuant to the provisions of this code.
(2) Other coursework as the governing board of the school district may by rule specify.
(b) The governing board, with the active involvement of parents, administrators, teachers, and pupils, shall adopt alternative means for pupils to complete the prescribed course of study , which may include practical demonstration of skills and competencies, supervised work experience or other outside school experience, career technical education classes offered in high schools, courses offered by regional occupational centers or programs, interdisciplinary study, independent study, and credit earned at a postsecondary institution. Requirements for graduation and specified alternative modes for completing the prescribed course of study shall be made available to pupils, parents, and the public.
SEC. 2. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
BILL NUMBER: AJR 14 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Krekorian
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member De Leon)
(Principal coauthors: Senators Cogdill and Simitian)
APRIL 14, 2009
Relative to the Armenian Genocide.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
AJR 14, as introduced, Krekorian. Armenian Genocide: Day of Remembrance.
This measure would designate April 24, 2009, as “California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.” It would memorialize the Congress and the President of the United States to act likewise to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
Fiscal committee: no.
WHEREAS, The Armenian people, living in their 3,000-year historic homeland in eastern Asia Minor and throughout the Ottoman Empire, were subjected to severe persecution and brutal injustice by the rulers of the Ottoman Empire before and after the turn of the 20th century, including widespread massacres, usurpation of land and property, and acts of wanton destruction during the period from 1894 to 1896, inclusive, and again in 1909; and WHEREAS, The horrible experience of the Armenians at the hands of their oppressors culminated in 1915 in what is known by historians as the “First Genocide of the Twentieth Century,” and as the prototype of modern day mass killing; and
WHEREAS, The Armenian Genocide began with the arrest, exile, and murder of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, and business, political, and religious leaders, starting on April 24, 1915; and WHEREAS, The regime then in control of the empire, known as the \”Young Turks,\” planned and executed the unspeakable atrocities committed against the Armenian people from 1915 to 1923, inclusive, which included the torture, starvation, and murder of 1,500,000
Armenians, death marches into the Syrian Desert, the forced exile of more than 500,000 innocent people, and the loss of the traditional Armenian homelands; and
WHEREAS, While there were some Turks and others who jeopardized their safety in order to protect Armenians from the crimes being perpetrated by the Young Turk regime, the genocide of the Armenian people constituted one of the most egregious violations of human rights in the history of the world; and
WHEREAS, The United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., stated \”Whatever crimes the most perverted instincts of the human mind can devise, and whatever refinements of persecutions and injustice the most debased imagination can conceive, became the daily misfortunes of this devoted people. I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915. The killing of the Armenian people was accompanied by the systematic destruction of churches, schools, libraries, treasures of art, and cultural monuments in an attempt to eliminate all traces of a noble civilization with a history of more than 3,000 years”; and WHEREAS, In discussing World War I, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote that “… the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it … the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense”; and WHEREAS, Winston Churchill wrote: “As for Turkish atrocities: … massacring uncounted thousands of helpless Armenians, men, women, and children together, whole districts blotted out in one administrative holocaust–these were beyond human redress”; and
WHEREAS, Contemporary newspapers like the New York Times commonly carried headlines such as “Tales of Armenian Horrors Confirmed,” “Million Armenians Killed or in Exile,” and “Wholesale Massacre of Armenians by Turks”; and
WHEREAS, Adolph Hitler, in persuading his army commanders on the eve of World War II that the merciless persecution and killing of Poles, Jews, and other peoples would bring no retribution, declared, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and
WHEREAS, Unlike other peoples and governments that have admitted and denounced the abuses and crimes of predecessor regimes, and despite the overwhelming proof of genocidal intent, the Republic of Turkey has inexplicably and adamantly denied the occurrence of the crimes against humanity committed by the Young Turk rulers, and those denials compound the grief of the few remaining survivors of the atrocities, desecrate the memory of the victims, and cause continuing trauma and pain to the descendants of the victims; and
WHEREAS, The Turkish Government has engaged in concerted efforts to revise history through the dissemination of propaganda falsely suggesting that Armenians were responsible for their fate in the period from 1915 to 1923, inclusive, and by the funding of programs at American educational institutions for the purpose of furthering the cause of this revisionism;and
WHEREAS, The Republic of Turkey has been condemned by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations for making free speech a crime by enacting Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes “public denigration of Turkishness … the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or security structures ” punishable by imprisonment, and has used this device to harass, intimidate, prosecute, and imprison Turkish citizens who have written or spoken honestly about the Armenian Genocide, including Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk; and
WHEREAS, Among those charged with “denigration of Turkishness” by Turkish prosecutors for his forthright acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide was journalist Hrant Dink, and in this atmosphere of intolerance of dissent, Mr. Dink was assassinated for his views on January 19, 2007; and
WHEREAS, The accelerated level and scope of denial and revisionism, coupled with the passage of time and the fact that few survivors remain who serve as personal eyewitnesses to the indescribable brutality and torment, compel a sense of urgency in achieving formal recognition and reaffirmation of the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide; and
WHEREAS, By honoring the victims and survivors, and consistently remembering and forcefully condemning the atrocities committed against the Armenian people as well as the persecution of the Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire, we guard against repetition of the crime of genocide; and
WHEREAS, California has become home to the largest population of Armenians in the world outside of Armenia, including Armenian Genocide survivors and their descendants, and those citizens have enriched our state and our Nation through leadership in academia, medicine, business, law, agriculture, government, the arts, and many other worthy endeavors, and they are proud and patriotic practitioners of American citizenship; and
WHEREAS, The State of California has been at the forefront of encouraging and promoting a curriculum relating to human rights and genocide in order to empower future generations to prevent recurrence of the crime of genocide; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly and Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California hereby designates April 24, 2009, as the “California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923”; and be it further Resolved, That the State of California commends its conscientious educators who teach about human rights and genocide; and be it further Resolved, That the State of California respectfully memorializes the Congress and the President of the United States to act likewise and to formally recognize and reaffirm the historical truth that the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted genocide; and be it further Resolved, That the State of California calls upon the Republic of Turkey to acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and to work toward a just resolution; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, Members of the United States Congress, the Governor, and the Turkish Ambassador to the United States.