LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION memorializing Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to
proclaim Saturday, March 31, 2012 as Azerbaijani Remembrance Day in the
State of New York

WHEREAS, Every year since 1918, Azerbaijanis and many people around the
globe observe March 31 as a Day of Remembrance, to honor the victims
resulting from the fighting that began in March of 1918; and
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to memorialize
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim Saturday, March 31, 2012 as Azerba-
ijani Remembrance Day in the State of New York; and
WHEREAS, 93 years have passed since the genocide committed by the
members of Armenian Dashnak party in concert with Bolsheviks against
Azerbaijanis; and
WHEREAS, The massacre of about 20,000 innocent people - elderly, women
and children started at the night of March 30, 1918; and
WHEREAS, Armenian Bolshevik troops led by Stepan Shaumyan massacred
thousands of people, burnt Muslim shrines and confiscated the 400-mil-
lion-manat estate of Baku residents; and
WHEREAS, Tezepir Mosque was bombed, and one of the magnificent archi-
tectural buildings, Ismailiyye, was burnt; and
WHEREAS, The genocide policy against Azerbaijanis was not limited to
only Baku; Armenian dashnaks killed 8,027 Azerbaijanis, including 2,560
women and 1,277 children in 53 villages of Shamakhy on March 31; and
WHEREAS, 16,000 Azerbaijanis were murdered in 162 villages of Guba;
Armenian Dashnaks burnt thousands of villages in Lenkeran, Mughan and
Nagorno Karabakh and killed thousands of people; and
WHEREAS, Special Investigation Commission set up by Azerbaijan Demo-
cratic Republic on July 15, 1918, gathered a great deal of documents and
submitted them to the government; and
WHEREAS, Azerbaijani parliament made a decision on marking March 31 as
the day of Azerbaijani genocide in 1919; and
WHEREAS, Though this date was forgotten during the Soviet period, a
lot of investigations on the tragedies committed on March 31, 1918, were
carried out and books were published after Azerbaijan gained its inde-
pendence; now, therefore be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim Saturday, March 31,
2012 as Azerbaijani Remembrance Day in the State of New York; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of New
York.