California State Assembly Votes to Divest from Turkey

With a vote of 61 to 0, the California State Assembly overwhelmingly voted to adopt Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian’s measure (AB 1597) – a movement long championed by the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region and Armenian Youth Federation Western Region – calling for the divestment of California public funds from Turkish government controlled financial instruments, ensuring taxpayer funds are no longer used in this manner to aid and abet Turkey’s century long obstruction of justice for the Armenian Genocide, Asbarez reports.

“We are truly grateful for the leadership shown by our 2016 Legislator of the Year, Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, in introducing and guiding this unprecedented ‘Divest Turkey’ bill to a successful vote in the California State Assembly,” said ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq. “We are also grateful to the thousands of California Armenians who heeded our Action Alert to call upon their elected representatives to support AB1597 and to the AYF for initiating this Divest Turkey movement by successfully securing resolutions from all nine campuses of the University of California and for working with us side by side to educate our elected representatives and to mobilize our grassroots.”

Hovsepian continued, noting, “As home to the largest Armenian community outside Armenia, it is time for California to stand firm against funding Turkey’s ongoing Genocide denial with California State pension investments and encouraging Turkey’s bad behavior on the world stage. We have been diligently working for many months in Sacramento informing and educating our legislators on this issue, and we look forward to a full enactment of this groundbreaking legislation as it goes to the Senate and then to the Governor. We remain committed to continuing to do all we can to accomplish this goal.”

Nazarian opened California State Assembly consideration of the measure, noting that: “The Republic of Turkey’s unwillingness to recognize the Genocide and their unrelenting campaign to deny the Genocide, continues to discriminate against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and many other ethnic minorities who suffered at the hands of the Turkish Ottoman Government.  California’s investment in Turkish government bonds indirectly subsidizes Turkish denial of the Genocide. This bill continues California’s commitment to act appropriately against countries that have a record of human rights violations and undermine democracy.”  Other legislators who spoke out on the measure during full floor consideration include Assemblymembers Rob Bonta, Matt Debabneh, Laura Friedman, Chris Holden, and Marc Levine.

“I am humbled and grateful for my colleagues in the Assembly for joining with me to fight for justice for the 1.5 million Armenian souls who perished in the Genocide,” stated Nazarian. “If Turkey continues to fund Armenian Genocide deniers they must be financially punished.”