Rep. Adam Schiff has urged the Library of Congress to revise its outdated Armenian Massacres subject heading to Armenian Genocide, in the wake of last year’s passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.296 / S.Res.150) in the House and Senate.
“We had to remind them You’re the Library of CONGRESS! You’re our library. If you’re going to follow anyone’s policy, it is our policy. You’re not the library of the White House, or the library of the Executive Branch,” Rep. Schiff said in a video address.
On Friday U.S. Representative Dina Titus (D-NV) sent a bipartisan Congressional letter, signed by more than 50 of her U.S. House colleagues, calling on the Library to change the subject heading.
Rep. Titus explained, “The use of the term ‘Armenian Genocide’ by the Library of Congress would help paint an accurate picture of history and rightly honor the victims of this atrocity.”
Rep. Titus was joined by 56 U.S. House colleagues in cosigning the letter.
The letter makes the case that: “the current subject heading, “Armenian Massacres,” is outdated, having been created before Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide and prior to the 1948 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” It goes on to argue that “the existing heading is also inconsistent with the broad, near-universal academic consensus recognizing the Armenian Genocide as a clear case of genocide as reflected in numerous resolutions, letters, and statements by the International Association of Genocide Scholars.”
