WHEREAS, the people of the State of New
Jersey have long recognized the importance of the principles of
freedom and democracy upon which our Nation was founded and the
importance of commemorating tragic historical events which show
that such principles
of freedom and democracy are not honored in other parts of the
globe; and
WHEREAS, one such event
is the systematic campaign to eradicate the ethnic Greek population
in Asia Minor, from 1914 to 1922, by consigning the killing
[of] thousands of male conscripts in forced labor battalions
and destroying Greek towns and villages and slaughtering additional
hundreds of thousands of civilians in areas where Greeks composed
a majority, as on the Black Sea coast, Pontus, and areas around
Smyrna, resulting in the genocide of over 500,000 Greeks of
Pontus and Asia Minor; and
WHEREAS, beginning
September 9, 1922, Smyrna, the largest city in Asia Minor, populated
by a vibrant Greek community, was sacked and burned, its Greek
and Armenian neighborhoods razed, and an estimated 150,000 of
its Greek and Armenian population slaughtered by Turkish forces;
and
WHEREAS, on that terrible
day, Metropolitan Chrysostomos, the bishop and spiritual leader
of Orthodox Christians in Smyrna who refused to abandon the
city,
was seized from religious
services he was conducting in the cathedral by Turkish police
forces and given over to be killed by a mob in the streets;
and
WHEREAS, during the
period that all those atrocities were committed, over 1,500,000
Greeks who survived that genocide were exiled from Asia Minor
and Pontus and became refugees around the globe, many of them
coming to the United States; and
WHEREAS, the majority
of the Greeks of Asia Minor and Pontus who immigrated to the
United States, entered through Ellis Island, and many of them
and their descendants became exemplary citizens of the great
State of New Jersey; and
WHEREAS, the people
of New Jersey desire to join the Greek American community in
honoring the memory of the victims of Smyrna in 1922 and the
Greeks who perished in the genocidal campaign in Asia Minor
and Pontus from 1914 to 1922; and
WHEREAS, it is important
for future generations that we commemorate these events, so
that such atrocities may never be repeated; and
WHEREAS, it is fitting
that the people of New Jersey share in the remembrance of the
80th Anniversary of the destruction of Smyrna, and join with
the Greek-American community in recognizing the genocide of
the Greek people of Pontus and Asia Minor;
NOW, THEREFORE, I,
JAMES E. McGREEVEY, Governor of the State of New Jersey, do
hereby proclaim
SEPTEMBER 9,2002
as
A DAY
OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF
SMYRNA
AND THE GENOCIDE AGAINST THE GREEK
PEOPLE
OF PONTUS AND ASIA MINOR
in New
Jersey.
GIVEN, under my hand
and the Great Seal
[graphic of the of
the State of New Jersey, this
Great Seal of the
fourth day of September in the year
State of New Jersey]
of our Lord two thousand two and of
the Independence of
the United States,
BY THE GOVERNOR the
two hundred and twenty-seventh.
[signature of [signature
of]
NJ Sec. of State]
James E. McGreevey
GOVERNOR
REGENA L. THOMAS
SECRETARY OF STATE
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