Author: Harut Sassounian

In a recent column titled, “There is a Time to Sue and a Time to Settle,” I urged the Armenian-American community to come together and launch the long-awaited Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial in Washington, located two blocks from the White House.

I made that suggestion after a federal judge ruled that the Cafesjian Family Foundation is the rightful owner of the Museum buildings. Many Armenian-Americans were hopeful that the court’s verdict would put an end to several years of legal wrangling that delayed the development of the Genocide Museum and cost millions of dollars in attorney fees.

Although many in the Armenian community welcomed my call for a united effort to make the Museum a reality on the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Armenian Assembly’s leadership disagreed, and proceeded to appeal the court’s verdict. Of course, the Assembly has the right to appeal, but doing so may not be the right course of action. Continuing the litigation would further delay the creation of an Armenian Genocide Museum in the nation’s capital, and undermine not only the interests of the Armenian-American community, but also the interests of the Assembly itself!

Members and supporters of the Assembly must be concerned about the insistence of some of their leaders to prolong this legal dispute. It would have been far more preferable to devote their limited resources to expand the organization’s social and political activities that have been considerably curtailed in recent years because of the economic downturn and the departure of key staff members from its offices in Washington, Los Angeles, and Yerevan. The organization’s finances were also impacted due to the loss of several Assembly donors after some of its leaders got involved in the highly controversial Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC). The Assembly acknowledged that shortage of funds was the reason for its decision to withdraw from the United Armenian Fund, a coalition of seven largest Armenian-American philanthropic and religious organizations that has provided over $600 million of humanitarian aid to Armenia and Artsakh since the 1988 earthquake.

Under these circumstances, it may be counterproductive for the Assembly’s leaders to spend millions of more dollars to appeal the verdict, particularly since the Judge ruled that in addition to paying their own legal expenses, they have to reimburse Mr. Gerard Cafesjian for a portion of his attorney fees, which could be a substantial sum! Those funds could be better utilized to re-energize the Assembly’s lobbying work in Washington or to fund other worthy projects, such as the Genocide Museum.

The Assembly leaders also do not need to waste their efforts by re-trying their legal case in the media. The California Courier received last week a letter to the editor signed by a gracious and generous couple who are major supporters of the Armenian Assembly. They were expressing disagreement with my column titled, “There is a Time to Sue and a Time to Settle.” Interestingly, parts of this letter bore some similarity to a press release issued by the Assembly a week earlier. In fact, the text reads more like a court brief drafted by an attorney than a letter expressing a reader’s opinion. The letter was sent to 10 Armenian newspapers and websites in the U.S. and Canada, asking them to publish it as a response to my column which did not appear in some of these news outlets.

I sincerely hope that the Assembly leaders are not engaged in wasteful efforts to conduct letter-writing campaigns in a vain attempt to win a war of words with the media, because there is no point in re-trying a lawsuit in the pages of a newspaper! That issue has already been settled in a court of law by an independent federal judge.

Nevertheless, a hopeful sign emerged last week, buried deep amid the disputes and recriminations. In an “Open Letter,” Mr. Hirair Hovnanian, Chairman of the Armenian Assembly, suggested that he “may be able to convince all interested parties to agree not to file an appeal,” if Mr. Cafesjian would guarantee the development of the Genocide Museum.

Since Mr. Cafesjian has already made such a commitment in court, the time has come to bury the hatchet, end all lawsuits and appeals, and go on with the important task of forming a pan-Armenian entity that would establish an Armenian Genocide Museum in Washington by April 24, 2015, the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

 

 

By Harut Sassounian   Eleven years ago, the California Legislature extended until the end of 2010, the deadline for filing lawsuits against insurance companies that had failed to pay benefits to heirs of Armenian Genocide victims.   Until the year 2000, these heirs could not sue insurance companies, as the deadline for filing such lawsuits had expired long ago. Under California law, the time limit for such lawsuits is 4 years.   During the past decade, after the statute of limitation was extended, Armenian-Americans successfully filed lawsuits in U.S. Federal Courts against New York Life insurance company and French AXA insurance company.   Additional lawsuits against German insurance companies and banks are still pending. With the support of the Turkish government which is not a party to these lawsuits, these German firms have unsuccessfully challenged in court the legislature’s action by claiming that the reference to the Armenian Genocide in the California bill is an encroachment on the foreign policy prerogative of the federal government.   After the expiration of the December 31, 2010 deadline, the Armenian-American community asked the California Legislature to extend the statute of limitation once again, since several new insurance companies have been identified that had not paid the benefits owed to their genocide-era clients.   To avoid further court challenges by the Turkish government and insurance companies, some have argued that there may not be a need to include a reference to the Armenian Genocide in the new California bill, as the companies were contractually obligated to pay the beneficiaries regardless of the cause of death. The legislators decided, however, not to give in to Turkish pressures and retain the reference to the Armenian Genocide, particularly since the justification for extending the filing deadline for genocide victims was that they lacked the necessary documents — death certificates and insurance policies — to file their claims in a timely manner.   It is noteworthy that the State of California defines the Armenian Genocide in the insurance bill as follows: “The Legislature recognizes that during the period from 1915 to 1923, many persons of Armenian ancestry residing in the historic Armenian homeland then situated in the Ottoman Empire were victims of massacre, torture, starvation, death marches, and exile. This period is known as the Armenian Genocide.”   The California State Assembly adopted the new bill (AB 173) on April 14, 2011, extending to December 31, 2016 the deadline for lawsuits against insurance companies by heirs of Armenian Genocide victims. Despite objections by the self-proclaimed “Turkish Peace and Justice Commission of California,” the bill was approved 10-0 by the Judiciary Committee of the California Assembly, and 61-0 by the full State Assembly. AB 173, formally supported by the Consumer Attorneys of California and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto on January 20, 2011. Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian was its principal co-author.   The Assembly’s Legislative Counsel provided the following digest of the bill: “Existing law authorizes any Armenian Genocide victim, as defined, or the heir or beneficiary of that victim, who resides in this state and has a claim arising out of an insurance policy or policies purchased or in effect in Europe or Asia between 1875 and 1923 from a defined insurer, to bring a legal action to recover on that claim in a court in this state. Existing law also provides that any action, including any pending action brought by an Armenian Genocide victim, or the heir or beneficiary of that victim, whether a resident or nonresident of this state, seeking benefits under the insurance policies issued or in effect between 1875 and 1923, shall not be dismissed for failure to comply with the applicable statute of limitation, provided the action is filed on or before December 31, 2010. This bill would extend the deadline for filing that action to December 31, 2016. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.”   After the State Assembly’s approval in April, the bill was referred to the California Senate Judiciary Committee on May 12, 2011. It will then be sent to the full Senate, and submitted to Governor Brown for his signature. This bill would amend Section 354.4 of the California Code of Civil Procedure that was initially signed into law on September 18, 2000. The new bill would extend the deadline to file lawsuits by heirs of Armenian Genocide victims against insurance companies from 2010 to end of 2016 — a year beyond the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, allowing many more lawsuits to be filed against delinquent insurance companies.

 

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made an embarrassing appearance before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) last month. Erdogan was invited to the podium after lavish praise by Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was acting more like a Turkish lobbyist than President of PACE. Cavusoglu is a founding member of the ruling AKP party and member of the Turkish Parliament. In his lengthy speech, the Prime Minister shamelessly lectured European Parliamentarians about democracy and freedom. Given his country’s dismal human rights record, Erdogan should have not raised such issues! Claiming that Turkey’s accession was “vital to the European Union,” he described as “foolish” those who opposed Turkey’s EU membership “for populist or artificial reasons.” Making a series of dubious and inflated claims about his government’s accomplishments, Erdogan asserted that: “Turkey has achieved historic reforms, especially in the area of democratization…. The government has also worked to lift restrictions on freedom. Freedoms have been strengthened in the last decade, and many issues are now discussed freely that could not have been discussed a decade ago. There is zero tolerance of torture, and barriers to freedom of expression have been removed. Some have alleged that there are restrictions on freedom of expression, but this is wrong…. The press is free, and freely criticizes anyone and everyone…. In Turkey, 26 journalists have been detained or arrested, because they are criminals, not because they are journalists.” These incredible words are uttered by a Prime Minister who does not hesitate to sue newspapers simply for publishing a cartoon likeness of him! When Erdogan finished his speech, Cavusoglu shielded him from further embarrassment by allowing only a handful of Parliamentarians to ask 30-second questions. Erdogan was displeased when Swiss Parliamentarian Andreas Gross reminded him about “the dark side of Turkish history,” asking him why Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was being persecuted for exercising his right to free speech. In response to Parliamentarian Anne Brasseur’s (Luxembourg) question about censorship in Turkey, Erdogan claimed that the Turkish “judiciary is independent and is entitled to conduct its investigations as it saw fit.” Armen Rustamyan, Chairman of the Armenian Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee, asked Erdogan what was the point of signing the Armenia-Turkey Protocols, if Turkey is not going to open its border with Armenia until the Karabagh (Artsakh) conflict is resolved? The Prime Minister responded that Turkey could not let Armenia “usurp the rights of Azerbaijan” and would indeed keep the border closed until the Karabagh issue is resolved. Erdogan then made a series of outlandish statements. He inadvertently reminded his European audience of the Turkish deportations of Armenians during the 1915 genocide by stating that even though Turkey could, it would not deport the 40,000 undocumented Armenian workers! He also complained that Armenia is not sufficiently pressuring its Diaspora. The Prime Minister seems to have forgotten that millions of Turks living illegally in Europe could also be deported! Erdogan carefully avoided responding to Rustamyan’s question about his personal order to dismantle the “Armenian-Turkish Friendship Statue” in Kars! The most embarrassing part of the PACE meeting was Erdogan’s rude answer to French Parliamentarian Muriel Marland-Militello who asked about the protection of religious minorities in Turkey. Erdogan insulted the lady by point out that in the Turkish language an ignorant person is described as someone from France, which she clearly happens to be! He invited her to Turkey, so she could learn about his country. To Erdogan’s chagrin, Marland-Militello turned out to know much more about Turkey’s minorities than the Prime Minister himself. As she disclosed during a subsequent press conference, Marland-Militello is a descendant of an Armenian family that had escaped from Turkey during the genocide! Erdogan also falsely claimed that the Armenian Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island is “now open for worship.” The fact is that the Turkish government converted the church into a state museum, allowing Divine Liturgy to be performed there only once. Another member of PACE, Naira Zohrabyan, having been blocked by Cavusoglu from asking a question, chased Erdogan down the corridor after the session and pushed her way past his bodyguards to hand him a photo album of murdered Armenian children during the genocide. While the Prime Minister may easily impress his devout followers at home, he completely embarrassed himself during his appearance at PACE in Strasbourg. In view of his blatantly deceptive statements, one would hope that Erdogan would appear more frequently in front of European audiences so he could help convince them that Turkey does not belong in Europe!

Sarkozy Joins Obama in Deceit:  Neither should be reelected in 2012 By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier   Armenians in France and the United States have a common challenge in 2012: To do everything in their power to block reelection of their deceptive presidents.   Neither Nicolas Sarkozy nor Barack Obama kept their promises to their respective Armenian constituents. The French President failed to honor his commitment to support a law penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, while the American leader broke his promise to acknowledge the genocide.   The long trail of Obama’s broken promises is well-known, but not many know about Sarkozy’s deception. On January 29, 2001, Pres. Jacques Chirac signed into law a decision adopted by the National Assembly on May 29, 1998, and the Senate on November 7, 2000, recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian community then petitioned the French government to assign a penalty of 45,000 euros and 5-year imprisonment for denial of the Armenian Genocide, similar to the existing law penalizing denial of the Jewish Holocaust.   This reasonable expectation turned into a major controversy due to Turkish pressure on France and opposition from some French intellectuals who staunchly defended free speech. Under these circumstances, the French government tried to block a vote on this measure in the National Assembly.   The French intellectuals, who objected to this law on grounds of restricting freedom of expression, conveniently ignored the fact that a similar law existed in France since 1990 to punish those who deny the Holocaust. The objections raised by Turkish denialists, on the other hand, were totally absurd. Turkey’s autocratic leaders had no right whatsoever to lecture the French on freedom of expression, while their own country arrested journalists, censored the media, and banned the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.   It was unfortunate that some well-intentioned but naive Armenians and their liberal Turkish friends also opposed the proposed law, thereby unintentionally supporting Turkish denialism. They opposed this bill by equating the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code banning the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, with the proposed French law penalizing the denial of the genocide. This is a farcical comparison because the Turkish law makes it a crime to tell the truth about the Armenian Genocide, while the French law makes it a crime to lie about it! Why didn’t these liberal Turks and French intellectuals, who claim to support freedom of speech, object to a similar French law penalizing denial of the Holocaust? Doesn’t that law also restrict freedom of speech? Why shouldn’t Armenian genocide victims be accorded equal protection under French law?   After lengthy debates and delays, the French National Assembly approved the law on penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide on October 12, 2006, and sent it to the Senate, where it has been stalled until last week.   While Sarkozy was a presidential candidate, he repeatedly promised to support adoption of this law in the French Senate. But as President, he reversed course and opposed the measure. After coming under intense criticism by Charles Aznavour and the influential French Armenian community, and realizing that he is badly trailing his likely opponents in next year’s presidential election, Pres. Sarkozy recently met with several prominent French Armenians and promised not to oppose the bill in the Senate. This was too little too late. After Turkish leaders once again unleashed an intense lobbying campaign, Sarkozy’s political party (UMP), which holds a majority in the Senate, was instructed by his government to oppose the bill. On May 4, after a three-hour debate, the Senate refused to take up the measure by a vote of 196-74.   The battle for this bill is by no means over. Taking advantage of Pres. Sarkozy’s poor rating in the polls, Armenians will now join forces with a majority of French voters to support the Socialist Party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, just as Armenian-Americans are preparing to oppose Pres. Obama in the 2012 elections.   In an attempt not to alienate Armenian voters altogether in the upcoming elections, France’s Justice Minister proposed the formation of a joint commission of Armenians and ministry officials that would bring to the courts’ attention incidents of genocide denial. This is a welcome development and in line with the existing commission on the Holocaust, but French Armenians should still insist on having a law that penalizes denial of the Armenian Genocide.   While politicians, whether in France or the United States, are notorious for breaking their promises, Armenians in both countries can only reach their objectives by pooling their resources and forming a cohesive voting block that backs their political supporters and counters their opponents.

 

Publisher, The California Courier FOX-TV (Los Angeles) invited this writer for a live in-studio interview on the Armenian Genocide for two consecutive days. The first, lasting 5 minutes, took place on April 24, during the TV station’s evening news program. The second, lasting over 6 minutes, took place on April 25, during the Good Day LA Show. Below are excerpts from both interviews:

 

April 24, 2011 FOX-TV: Joining us now is Harut Sassounian, the president of the United Armenian Fund. He’s also publisher of the California Courier, a newspaper here in Southern California, published out of Glendale. It is the 96^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. And it’s also kind of a confusing issue for a lot of us, because Armenian-Americans want the president to say, to claim that this was genocide. And yet, you just told me prior to coming on the newscast that really it doesn’t matter whether the president says it or not. Why? SASSOUNIAN: Because we already have another president, Ronald Reagan, 30 years ago in 1981, who issued a presidential proclamation in which he mentioned the words Armenian Genocide. Plus, we have two congressional resolutions, in 1975 and 1984, commemorating the Armenian Genocide.

 

FOX-TV: Mr. Sassounian, then one would ask, and people who are not that familiar with the 1915 genocide would say, why are you protesting out in front of the Turkish consulate? SASSOUNIAN: We are simply protesting to let the president know, and every other politician know that if you come to us as a candidate and make [empty] promises and later on you get elected with our votes and money, we’re not going to just remain silent, we’re going to express our disagreement and we’re going to make sure that you’re not re-elected.

 

FOX-TV: It’s not then good enough to have just the proclamation by Pres. Reagan; to have the Dept. of Justice write in a 1951 paper that it was genocide. You want that confirmed by the current administration? SASSOUNIAN: It would be nice if they confirm it, but we are trying to send a message to the president and all politicians that if you make a promise to the people, you have to keep your promise. You can’t make a false promise, get their money, get their votes, and then act like nothing happened! They have to pay a price! We have to change the whole political charade in this country where you just lie to the public and get away with it.

 

FOX-TV: With Turkey being such a strategic ally of the United States, do you expect any president now or after this to come out and say, “The Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians?” SASSOUNIAN: There is a big difference between politics and historical facts. Historical facts do not change with time. If an event happened, it happened! …So our alliances or relationships, good or bad, should not affect the facts of history.

 

FOX-TV: Yesterday Armenian boxer Vic Darchinyan, on his trunks, when he was in the ring, were in big numerals 1915, and on a sports blog, the blogger said “In case you haven’t heard about the Armenian Genocide …” and then started to explain it. Does it upset you that so many people outside of Armenian-Americans really are ignorant about this? SASSOUNIAN: That doesn’t upset me because most people don’t know much about the world. They don’t follow the news very closely, as some of us do. What upsets me more is when you said at the top of the introduction of this news item “Armenians claim genocide.” Armenians are not the ones claiming genocide. The whole world knows there was a genocide. Hundreds of historians, 43 US states, Congress twice, President Reagan, 25 different countries have passed parliamentary resolutions. Just because Turkey, the successor of the criminal regime, denies it, that doesn’t make it an allegation or a claim. It’s a historical fact. For political reasons, Turks don’t want to face up to their own history.

 

FOX-TV: And I think that was written, we were reporting that for the purpose of showing the contrast between Armenians and Turks. And yet, your point is well taken. Thank you for the correction.

 

April 25, 2011 FOX-TV: Yesterday around the world, [there were] commemorations of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 — a very controversial historical event — perhaps a million and a half people died or were killed as a result of this. Joining us now is Harut Sassounian. He is the president of the United Armenian Fund and editor of the Armenian newspaper, the California Courier. We do this every year. The issue at stake is that the United States government, this president, the last president, the president before, all ran making big statements saying that the Armenian Genocide will be recognized as a genocide like the Holocaust around World War II. All three presidents run, all three presidents when they get into office, they look at Turkey, an ally we need badly in the Middle East, and they don’t do it.

 

SASSOUNIAN: In general, politicians are all very bad in keeping promises on all subjects. But when it comes to this subject, there’s a little unfortunate situation where people confuse politics with history. You can remain good friends, good allies, with Turkey, but at the same time not change historical facts…. So we should not mix up politics and history. We should be truthful about facts, but we can still remain friends, trade, and maintain military relations.

 

FOX-TV: Let me just play the devil’s advocate, as if I’m representing the president at this point. Yes, that’s true, but where I sit right now, the world where it is, leaves us in a position where we do not want to insult Turkey and they’ve made it very clear to us that they would be deeply insulted. SASSOUNIAN: First of all, this was done by the Ottoman Empire and not the Republic of Turkey which didn’t exist at the time. Secondly, Germany has no problem acknowledging what the Nazi regime did. There’s no reason why today’s Turkey should not acknowledge what was done by its predecessor….

 

FOX-TV: Turkey has become more and more important to us as the years go on. SASSOUNIAN: It has become more important and recently it has become a serious problem for us because they’ve become more of a radical Islamic regime; they strengthened their ties with Iran and Syria and various other radical regimes.

 

FOX-TV: And I believe the administration is afraid of pushing them more into that camp, if they take the step of recognition.

 

SASSOUNIAN: This is the problem because we compromise our principles, our values, because of geopolitical considerations. We have to separate them. We have to say here are the facts, here’s history, here are our values, and you have to live with it. The more we cater to dictators, people who deny the facts of history, the more they’re going to be demanding from us.

 

FOX-TV: And you know in history the Ottoman Empire, which fell right after that, the Turks say “not a genocide, it’s the fog of war, people died from war, people died from disease, it wasn’t planned, so therefore it wasn’t a genocide,” and you say…

 

SASSOUNIAN: There are hundreds of historians, experts on the Holocaust and the genocide who have signed a unanimous letter saying it was genocide. We have court cases, we have the United Nations, we have the European Parliament that recognized the genocide, so many countries, U.S. states, and Pres. Reagan himself said it was genocide.

 

FOX-TV: I know you want recognition — there has been some — but maybe not enough. What else is it that you would want? SASSOUNIAN: In fact, what we want is not really recognition, because from my point of view the world knows it was genocide. Some people don’t want to say it publicly. But what we really want is…we lost a lot beyond the people who were killed — we lost our culture, our churches, our lands, and our personal properties. Every Armenian had houses, farms, properties, and bank accounts. We’ve lost all of that. So my intent is to go to court — the World Court, the European Court, and U.S. Federal Courts. We want Turks to pay reparations, restitution and bring justice back for this massive crime they’ve committed. That’s much more important to us than the lip service that any politician would pay to us.

 

FOX-TV: The fact that there isn’t that one level of official recognition keeps this topic very fresh. And to some extent there’s an advantage to that because we’re still talking about it all the time. SASSOUNIAN: You’re absolutely correct…let’s forget about Pres. Obama for a second. Even if the President of Turkey tomorrow morning would say it was genocide, most people around the world and maybe even some Armenians would say that we finally reached our objective, let’s move on. So maybe it’s a good thing that the Turks keep denying it.