In a stunning development, a federal appeals court handed Armenian Americans a major legal and political victory last week. It reversed its earlier ruling and decided that a California law extending the deadline for lawsuits against life insurance companies was constitutional, after all.
The new ruling did much more than assist heirs of Armenian Genocide victims to file lawsuits against insurance companies for unpaid claims. It also blocked possible legal action by Turkish organizations that could have undone decades of struggle for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by local and state governments in the United States.
In 2009, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that a law adopted by the California Legislature in 2000—extending to Dec. 31, 2010 the statute of limitations on insurance claims—was unconstitutional because it included a reference to the Armenian Genocide. In a 2-1 decision, the court ruled that the State of California had infringed on the foreign affairs power reserved by the U.S. Constitution to the federal government. Two of the three federal judges asserted that the state had contravened the federal government’s policy of not acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.
I pointed out in a column I wrote in response to the 2009 appeals court decision that Judges David Thomson and Dorothy Nelson were mistaken in claiming that Congress and states were prohibited from adopting resolutions on the Armenian Genocide. In their majority opinion, the two judges selectively mentioned only those resolutions that were not approved by the House, ignoring that the U.S. House of Representatives twice adopted Armenian Genocide Resolutions in 1975 and 1984, and that President Ronald Reagan issued a Presidential Proclamation in 1981 acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. I also wrote that the U.S. government did not have an official policy of denying the Armenian Genocide. I also wondered why the California attorney general was not asked to file a friend of the court brief to defend the state from unwarranted accusations that it had adopted a statute that supposedly violated the U.S. Constitution.
Given the serious consequences of the 2009 court ruling on the lawsuit filed by the Law Offices of Geragos & Geragos; Kabateck, Brown, Kellner LLP; and Yeghiayan Law Firm, attorneys David Balabanian, David Salmons, and Erin Conroy from Bingham McCutchen sought a rehearing of the case. Friend of the court briefs in support of the rehearing were filed by the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Bar Association, Zoryan Institute, International Association of Genocide Scholars, EarthRights International, Center for Constitutional Rights, Cong. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and California Attorney General Jerry Brown.
On Dec. 10, the same appeals court with the same judicial panel as last year’s ruled 2-1 that the California law referring to the Armenian Genocide did not conflict with U.S. foreign policy. Judge Nelson, switching sides, joined Judge Harry Pregerson in ruling in favor of the Armenian plaintiffs. “We conclude that there is no express federal policy forbidding states to use the term Armenian Genocide,” Judge Pregerson wrote for the majority. He quoted from “various statements from the federal executive and legislative branches in favor of genocide recognition.” He specifically cited the Armenian Genocide Resolutions adopted by the House of Representatives in 1975 and 1984, and Reagan’s Presidential Proclamation of 1981. Pregerson also stated that “the federal government has never expressed any opposition” to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by any of the 43 states.
Following this ruling, the lawsuit against the three German insurance companies can resume, opening the door for more lawsuits against other insurance companies, subject to a possible rehearing by a full 11-judge panel of the appeals court.
In addition, Armenian Americans can now use the appeals court’s ruling to persuade those Members of Congress who may be reluctant to support a pending genocide resolution out of an unfounded concern that it may contradict U.S. foreign policy. The court’s ruling makes it crystal clear that the federal government has never denied the Armenian Genocide and never objected to the plethora of U.S. cities, counties, and states recognizing it. The decision of the appeals court should be forwarded to all Members of Congress, State Department officials, and the White House.
Neil Soltman, attorney for the three German insurance companies being sued, stated that he was baffled by the appeals court’s decision. Gunay Evinch, the president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, called the ruling “unprecedented,” “politically motivated,” and “shameful.”
It is noteworthy that Armenians are suing German insurance companies in California, and a Turkish lobbying group is squirming, for good reason.
Harut Sassounian
As another wall of those who deny the genocide collaspes, we should pause to acknowledge the unrelenting spirit of Armenians pursuing justice in the halls of Congress, in the courts of America and confronting denial across the globe. The Turks are and should be concerned. They are losing several public relations battles and are witnessing momentum by the Armenian community. To the Turks , the diaspora is a thorn… a spirited, educated and commited entity created by the murder and expulsion of our grandparents. The Turkish denial strategy counted on two elements: its geo-political power to silence allies and for assimilation to weaken the disapora over time.
The surging strength of the Armenians is evident as resources continue to be galvanized for the recognition of the genocide. In fact, it is alarming to the Turks that Armenians are beginning to turn their attention to the process of reparitions.
This is another moderate but important step in our long road to justice.
I hope we don’t have to wait for the “100th Anniversary” but I believe that this number looms large over all of us and is helping to build momentum in our efforts to achieve the goal of recognition by Turkey and the start of reparations, the logical next step.
Stephan,
It’s not the “unrelenting spirit” of the Armenian people…it’s the death threats from the ARF, intimidation, bribes, the constant lying (including the century-old Armenian snow job), the whining, the hate indoctrinations of Armenian youth via the AYF, Armenian terrorism, forgeries, scams, editorial board censorship/deletions, etc. that hold/prop up your house of cards! You’re all only fooling yourselves!
Boyajian,
You mention reparations as being the next “logical step”! I agree. When can Turkey, Azerbaijan, the Kurds, the Greeks, the Laz, the Tartars, the Georgians, the Persians, the Arabs, the Jews expect to see their reparations from Armenia , ANCA and the ARF?
Make your claim Steve and show your references. Don’t just blow smoke. The Armenian nation was diminished by 9/10ths. Where did they all go? What snow job? Who is brainwashed and hate-filled now?
The German government passed a resolution in 2005 recognizing the Armenian calamity of 1915, and apologizing for not having stopped it, for Germany was the number one ally of Turkey in WWI. The German Kaiser and his officers were instrumental in the arming, funding and training of the Turkish troupes. They had the power to very easily stop the Armenian massacres, but they did not, in fact documents suggest that some high German officers aided the Turks in staging the Armenian annihilation with the hopes of securing an eastward empire. And yet, the German insurance companies’ lawyer is apparently baffled by this reversal of ruling by the appeals court, and is greatly disappointed that he could not take advantage of the US government’s foreign policy vis a vis the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, in order to help his clients keep the blood money of unpaid life insurances of Genocide victims! How low can these German thieves go?… As low as Talaat Pasha, who after sending thousands of Armenians to their death, confiscating their bank accounts, assets and lands, had the gul to ask the European countries to roll over the Life Insurance Policies of all the dead Armenians to his government, because they should “now be considered State property, since their holders are all dead”. The European countries were supposedly appalled and did not head this insolence, but guess what, they ended up keeping those monies to themselves!
The President of the Turkish American Associations on the other hand calls the ruling “unprecedented” and “political”. “Unprecedented”? Really? In what sense? Unprecedented because it is a deviation from the US Turkish understanding of “I’ll ignore the Genocide you committed, and you’ll give me political kudos in return?” It can’t be called “unprecedented” in by itself, because the courts throughout the US have readily allowed the victims of the Holocaust to sue the German banks retrospectively with interest for all the assets of their killed ancestors. “Political”? How can individual claims and law suits for the collection of unpaid insurance coverages for killed parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts can be called “political”? These are private law suits! Who’s business is it but that of the plaintiffs? Why is the President of the Turkish American Assoc. taking it upon himself to call private individuals’ law suits for the collection of their own family’s lost assets from a country other than Turkey, “political”, unless HE wants to make the matter political! Unless he is scared that we will sue the Turkish banks next?
Can someone ask the Americans, who have such a short memory, why in 1915 they were collecting money for the “starving Armenians”? Can someone ask them to look up the hundreds of New York Times and other newspaper articles of the time describing the massacres? Can someone ask them why their President Woodraw Wilson and the English House of Commons made it clear that they would make sure that the Turks would pay for massacring the Armenians? President Woodraw Wilson awarded Western Armenia back to the Armenians in the Treaty of Sevres, which was signed by Turkey… This loss of memory must have been caused by the inhallation of the smell of oil, and by exposure to the drafts of a Cold War.
The continuous refusal of the US to officially recognize the same Armenian Genocide that its own national archives prove unequivocally, is UNCONSTITUTIONAL! The US Constitution does not allow the US government to descriminate against the recognition of the Genocide of one specific group for political gain. The Constitution says that “all men are born equal” and should all enjoy “liberty and justice”. The US government should be sued by its citizens of Armenian descent for this outright UNETHICAL AND HURTFUL DISCRIMINATION AND BREACH OF JUSTICE for the past thirty years of resolutions passed, forgotten and stopped.
Steve,
When is Turkey going to repay the Greeks, Romanians, Serbians, Lebanese, Palestinians (Turkey has been offering Intelligence and military aid to Israel against the PaLestinians for how many years now?) Syrians, Jews, Armenians, Assyrians, the Kurds etc etc etc…. and when is it going to stop occupying Cyprus, Kurdistan, Assyria and Western Armenia? Also, when do you think Turkey will stop threatening every other country with economic and catastrophic consequences if they recognize the Armenian Genocide? When is it going to stop throwing a fit and recalling its Ambassadors? When is it going to stop arresting opposition politicians, Pulizer Prize winning scholars and historians? When is it going to stop allowing the assasination of journalists? When is it going to stop jailing and torturing Kurdish children? When is it going to be done renaming every Armenian village and Turkifying the name of every Armenian monument? When is it going to explain why there are so many human bones in its south? When is it going to explain where its 2 million Armenian population disappeared to in 1915? And can Turkey please explain how anything it ever touched in the Caucassus, the Middle East and Europe could qualify as belonging to it, when the Seljuk Turks originated and came from Central Asia?
History is not a joke… people’s suffering is not a joke…. Armenia was on those lands for over 3,000 years… The first historic mention of “Armenia” is in Assyrian scripts dating from the ninth century Before Christ (900BC)! The Seljuk Turks originated from the Steppes of Central Asia, they were a nomadic tribe of Tatars. They invaded the Byzantine Empire around 1060. They eventually formed the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1299-1923. Please do the math… Everything the Turks layed their hands on were other peoples! Including my grandparents bank accounts in 1922, their homes, stables, gardens, stores, store inventories, house furnishings and wedding gifts (they were newlyweds). You or anyone, has no right to stop me from claiming what my grandparents owned and intended to leave to me.
Turkey can evade justice by calling the Armenian Genocide a “lie” in front of the world, but never in front of God! I and thounsands like me, the descendants of the Genocide survivors are witness to that. By the way, the ARF movement was born as a direct result of Turkish abuse of Armenian human/civic rights and dignity! Every human being is created by the same God, to live with his dignity the life given to him!