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Armenian Massacre Settlement Reached

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  • Armenian Massacre Settlement Reached

    ARMENIAN MASSACRE SETTLEMENT REACHED

    Seven.com.au, Australia
    Sydney Morning Herald , Australia
    The Age, Australia
    Oct 13 2005

    The descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed under
    Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $US17 million ($A22.34 million)
    settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought against French insurance
    giant AXA for unpaid life insurance benefits, lawyers have said.

    The settlement was due to be approved in November in the US District
    Court in California.

    California is home to the largest number of Armenians living outside
    Armenia.

    The class included Armenians living in the United States and abroad
    who were descendants and heirs of policyholders who perished in what
    Armenians say was a genocide perpetrated by Turks.

    It was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in US courts
    despite the fact the United States, along with Turkey, did not
    officially recognise the deaths as genocide.

    In February, New York Life agreed to pay $US20 million ($A26.28
    million) to descendants of its Armenian policyholders killed in 1915.

    Turkey always denied there was a systematic campaign to annihilate
    Armenians, saying the deaths occurred in partisan fighting and chaos
    during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

    Advertisement AdvertisementThe California settlement would be
    administered in France, one of the first countries to recognise the
    Armenian genocide.

    AXA headquarters in France does business in the United States through
    subsidiaries.

    AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to various France-based
    Armenian charitable organisations.

    It would also contribute $US11 million ($A14.45 million) toward a
    fund designed to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
    Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
    before 1915.

    In the chaos that surrounded the killings, many policyholders were
    unable to obtain their insurance proceeds.

    "The AXA and New York Life settlements are important building blocks
    not only toward seeking financial recovery for the losses resulting
    from the Armenian genocide but also in our ultimate goal, which is
    for Turkey and the US to officially acknowledge the genocide," said
    Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was one of the lawyers for
    the plaintiffs.
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