Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenians Seek Democrats Assistance

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenians Seek Democrats Assistance

    ARMENIANS SEEK DEMOCRATS ASSISTANCE
    By Fred Ortega Staff Writer

    San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
    Pasadena Star-News, CA
    Whittier Daily News, CA
    Nov 19 2006

    New Congress to be asked to recognize alleged genocide

    LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE - Setrak Sheytanian died long ago, the victim
    of a mass killing spree that many consider the first true genocide
    of the 20th century.

    For decades his family tried in vain to collect on his life insurance
    policy, issued by New York Life nearly 100 years ago in Eastern
    Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. They finally prevailed last year,
    capitalizing on a California law that allows heirs of Armenians
    killed by the Ottoman Turks during World War I to sue for unpaid
    insurance claims.

    No such law exists at the federal level, partly because Washington
    has never said the mass killings perpetrated against the Armenians
    constituted genocide. But that stance may soon change because of the
    shift in power on Capitol Hill.

    "We now have a speaker-elect who supports recognizing the Armenian
    genocide," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who along with San
    Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi has co-sponsored legislation that
    would officially label the killings as part of a campaign of ethnic
    cleansing by the Turks. "That is a tremendous ally to have."

    The legislation, along with a similar bill sponsored by Schiff,
    was moved forward last year by the House International Relations
    Committee. Neither of the bills ever made it to the House floor because
    of strong opposition from other members of Congress, including outgoing
    Speaker Dennis Hastert.

    But the stalled legislation has suddenly been infused with new life,
    with Pelosi at the helm of a new, Democrat-controlled Congress.

    "Ms. Pelosi has pledged to support the resolution again in the 110th
    Congress," said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for the San Francisco
    congresswoman. However, no resolutions on Armenia are included in
    Pelosi's list of top priorities for the first 100 days of the new
    Congress, he added.

    Armenians contend that up to 1.5 million of their countrymen died at
    the hands of the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923.

    An official government recognition of the Armenian killings is long
    overdue, said Martin Marutian, Sheytanian's nephew.

    "It is very important because we are recognizing genocides in Africa,
    the Nazi Holocaust, but not the Armenian genocide, which was the
    first one," said Marutian, 91, of La Ca ada Flintridge. "Newspapers,
    including the New York Times, wrote about the genocide at the time.

    But it seems like today the U.S. and Turkey have amnesia."

    Marutian recounted the story of his uncle, who he said was killed
    along with his wife and two small children when the Turks stormed
    their small town of Kharpet in 1915. Marutian's mother had left
    Turkey a year earlier for the United States to join her husband,
    and Sheytanian had given her his policy to take with her.

    For years, New York Life ignored the policy. But last year, a group
    of lawyers - including high-profile attorney Mark Geragos - reached a

    $20 million settlement with the company on behalf of scores Armenian
    families, including the Marutians.

    Geragos said federal recognition of the Armenian genocide might open
    the way for similar suits over claims outside of California.

    "Hypothetically, if it were to happen federally, there are a number
    of legal options that could open up," said Geragos, who has also
    recovered $17 million for claimants from European insurance giant
    AXA. He linked the AXA settlement with the recent action by the French
    Parliament to formally recognize an Armenian genocide.

    Geragos, who is of Armenian descent, also believes that federal
    recognition of a genocide could eventually lead to the United States
    acting as a mediator between Turkey and Armenia on the issue of land
    and monetary reparations.

    But others doubt that federal recognition of a genocide would lead
    to any substantial results, let alone an about-face by Turkey on the
    issue. Vartkes Yeghiayan, another of the lawyers in the New York Life
    case, believes passage of the Schiff and Pelosi resolution would be
    primarily symbolic.

    "The House of Representatives passed resolutions in 1974 and 1985 on
    the genocide and President Reagan mentioned the genocide in 1981. And
    what happened? Nothing," Yeghiayan said. "The important thing is for
    Turkey to recognize the genocide. I don't care who else in the world
    recognizes it."

    And even with Democrats in control of Congress, any Armenian genocide
    resolution could still face considerable opposition.

    "We intend to move very quickly on this in the new session, but I
    don't want to minimize the difficulty we face," said Schiff, who as
    a state senator authored the legislation used by Geragos to sue New
    York Life. "The Bush administration has opposed recognition, many
    in Congress are fighting it and Turkey has some of the best paid
    lobbyists available."

    A spokesman for Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ill., a leading opponent of genocide
    recognition, said the GOP congressman is against the legislation
    because it would only embarrass Turkey and could lead to a souring
    of relations with the secular Muslim nation.

    U.S. State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus repeated the
    position of President Bush, who earlier this year referred to the
    actions against the Armenians in Turkey as "mass killings," but
    stopped short of calling them genocide.

    Any Armenian genocide resolution would certainly lead to repercussions
    from Turkey, said Tuluy Tanc, spokesman for the Turkish Embassy in
    Washington, D.C.

    "The U.S. is an important friend and ally of Turkey, we have a
    strategic partnership, and such action would be contradictory to that
    partnership," said Tanc, whose nation has been a key U.S. ally in
    battling terrorism. "We don't think a legislative body like Congress
    should express an opinion on such a debatable and controversial issue."

    Turkey cut off military relations with France after that country
    recognized the deaths as genocide, although it admits that hundreds
    of thousands of Armenians died when the Ottoman Empire forced them to
    relocate from Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Tanc said the move
    was a necessity during a time of war, when many of Turkey's Armenian
    citizens sided with the invading Russian Army.

    "We believe that the intent of the Ottoman government to hurt Armenians
    on the basis of their ethnicity has not been proven," Tanc said.

    --Boundary_(ID_3rSDoEVXbWv8RnC03a9bhg)--

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X