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ARMENIANS TO SHARE $17M PAYOUT FOR OTTOMAN MASSACRE
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
The Independent, UK
Oct 14 2005
Descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during the
collapse of Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $17m (£9.7m) payout
after a settlement with the French insurance giant AXA. The relatives
lodged their legal case in California, home to one of the world's
largest Armenian communities, claiming for life insurance benefits
that were never paid. The settlement is likely to be approved in
November in the US District Court in California.
Armenians are stepping up their campaign to win formal classification
of the murders as an act of genocide. Turkey has always denied there
was a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Armenians,
saying they were casualties of partisan fighting and of a political
vacuum during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara says that as many as 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many
Turks, died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during the First
World War. Last month the authorities finally allowed the issue to be
debated on Turkish soil by historians at an academic conference. But
the organisers had to side-step two legal orders banning it by
rearranging the venue.
The California settlement will be administered in France, which also
has many expatriate Armenian communities and which was one of the first
countries to recognise the murders as genocide. AXA's headquarters
are in France and the company operates in the US through subsidiaries.
Under the settlement, AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to
various France-based Armenian charities. It will also contribute $11m
toward a fund to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
before 1915.
The AXA case was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in
US courts, although the United States, along with Turkey, does not
officially recognise the deaths as genocide. In February, New York
Life agreed to pay $20m to descendants of its Armenian policyholders
killed in 1915.
Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said: "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."
This month, Turkey launched EU membership talks which are expected
to last at least a decade. Despite criticism of the stance taken by
Ankara on the issue, EU member states did not seek to make recognition
of the Armenian case as genocide a condition of beginning negotiations
on joining the bloc.
The failure to acknowledge the genocide has also bedevilled Turkey's
relations with its neighbour, Armenia. Turkey shut its border with
Armenia in 1993, angry at the Armenian separatist forces fighting
for independence from Azerbaijan in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians, the behaviour of the Young Turks, the dominant party in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in systematically arranging the deportation
and killing of 1.5 million Armenians, is central to their national
self image. They say persecutions continued with varying intensity
until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced
by the Republic of Turkey.
Ankara angrily rejects the claim of a planned genocide, but some EU
politicians still want Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide
before Ankara is allowed to join the EU.
Descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during the
collapse of Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $17m (£9.7m) payout
after a settlement with the French insurance giant AXA. The relatives
lodged their legal case in California, home to one of the world's
largest Armenian communities, claiming for life insurance benefits
that were never paid. The settlement is likely to be approved in
November in the US District Court in California.
Armenians are stepping up their campaign to win formal classification
of the murders as an act of genocide. Turkey has always denied there
was a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Armenians,
saying they were casualties of partisan fighting and of a political
vacuum during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara says that as many as 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many
Turks, died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during the First
World War. Last month the authorities finally allowed the issue to be
debated on Turkish soil by historians at an academic conference. But
the organisers had to side-step two legal orders banning it by
rearranging the venue.
The California settlement will be administered in France, which also
has many expatriate Armenian communities and which was one of the first
countries to recognise the murders as genocide. AXA's headquarters
are in France and the company operates in the US through subsidiaries.
Under the settlement, AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to
various France-based Armenian charities. It will also contribute $11m
toward a fund to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
before 1915.
The AXA case was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in
US courts, although the United States, along with Turkey, does not
officially recognise the deaths as genocide. In February, New York
Life agreed to pay $20m to descendants of its Armenian policyholders
killed in 1915.
Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said: "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."
This month, Turkey launched EU membership talks which are expected
to last at least a decade. Despite criticism of the stance taken by
Ankara on the issue, EU member states did not seek to make recognition
of the Armenian case as genocide a condition of beginning negotiations
on joining the bloc.
The failure to acknowledge the genocide has also bedevilled Turkey's
relations with its neighbour, Armenia. Turkey shut its border with
Armenia in 1993, angry at the Armenian separatist forces fighting
for independence from Azerbaijan in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians, the behaviour of the Young Turks, the dominant party in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in systematically arranging the deportation
and killing of 1.5 million Armenians, is central to their national
self image. They say persecutions continued with varying intensity
until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced
by the Republic of Turkey.
Ankara angrily rejects the claim of a planned genocide, but some EU
politicians still want Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide
before Ankara is allowed to join the EU.
--Boundary_(ID_w5yTcrfJaPFUOcjPl4Bi0g)--
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
The Independent, UK
Oct 14 2005
Descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during the
collapse of Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $17m (£9.7m) payout
after a settlement with the French insurance giant AXA. The relatives
lodged their legal case in California, home to one of the world's
largest Armenian communities, claiming for life insurance benefits
that were never paid. The settlement is likely to be approved in
November in the US District Court in California.
Armenians are stepping up their campaign to win formal classification
of the murders as an act of genocide. Turkey has always denied there
was a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Armenians,
saying they were casualties of partisan fighting and of a political
vacuum during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara says that as many as 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many
Turks, died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during the First
World War. Last month the authorities finally allowed the issue to be
debated on Turkish soil by historians at an academic conference. But
the organisers had to side-step two legal orders banning it by
rearranging the venue.
The California settlement will be administered in France, which also
has many expatriate Armenian communities and which was one of the first
countries to recognise the murders as genocide. AXA's headquarters
are in France and the company operates in the US through subsidiaries.
Under the settlement, AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to
various France-based Armenian charities. It will also contribute $11m
toward a fund to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
before 1915.
The AXA case was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in
US courts, although the United States, along with Turkey, does not
officially recognise the deaths as genocide. In February, New York
Life agreed to pay $20m to descendants of its Armenian policyholders
killed in 1915.
Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said: "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."
This month, Turkey launched EU membership talks which are expected
to last at least a decade. Despite criticism of the stance taken by
Ankara on the issue, EU member states did not seek to make recognition
of the Armenian case as genocide a condition of beginning negotiations
on joining the bloc.
The failure to acknowledge the genocide has also bedevilled Turkey's
relations with its neighbour, Armenia. Turkey shut its border with
Armenia in 1993, angry at the Armenian separatist forces fighting
for independence from Azerbaijan in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians, the behaviour of the Young Turks, the dominant party in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in systematically arranging the deportation
and killing of 1.5 million Armenians, is central to their national
self image. They say persecutions continued with varying intensity
until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced
by the Republic of Turkey.
Ankara angrily rejects the claim of a planned genocide, but some EU
politicians still want Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide
before Ankara is allowed to join the EU.
Descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during the
collapse of Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $17m (£9.7m) payout
after a settlement with the French insurance giant AXA. The relatives
lodged their legal case in California, home to one of the world's
largest Armenian communities, claiming for life insurance benefits
that were never paid. The settlement is likely to be approved in
November in the US District Court in California.
Armenians are stepping up their campaign to win formal classification
of the murders as an act of genocide. Turkey has always denied there
was a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Armenians,
saying they were casualties of partisan fighting and of a political
vacuum during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara says that as many as 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many
Turks, died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during the First
World War. Last month the authorities finally allowed the issue to be
debated on Turkish soil by historians at an academic conference. But
the organisers had to side-step two legal orders banning it by
rearranging the venue.
The California settlement will be administered in France, which also
has many expatriate Armenian communities and which was one of the first
countries to recognise the murders as genocide. AXA's headquarters
are in France and the company operates in the US through subsidiaries.
Under the settlement, AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to
various France-based Armenian charities. It will also contribute $11m
toward a fund to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
before 1915.
The AXA case was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in
US courts, although the United States, along with Turkey, does not
officially recognise the deaths as genocide. In February, New York
Life agreed to pay $20m to descendants of its Armenian policyholders
killed in 1915.
Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said: "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."
This month, Turkey launched EU membership talks which are expected
to last at least a decade. Despite criticism of the stance taken by
Ankara on the issue, EU member states did not seek to make recognition
of the Armenian case as genocide a condition of beginning negotiations
on joining the bloc.
The failure to acknowledge the genocide has also bedevilled Turkey's
relations with its neighbour, Armenia. Turkey shut its border with
Armenia in 1993, angry at the Armenian separatist forces fighting
for independence from Azerbaijan in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians, the behaviour of the Young Turks, the dominant party in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in systematically arranging the deportation
and killing of 1.5 million Armenians, is central to their national
self image. They say persecutions continued with varying intensity
until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced
by the Republic of Turkey.
Ankara angrily rejects the claim of a planned genocide, but some EU
politicians still want Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide
before Ankara is allowed to join the EU.
--Boundary_(ID_w5yTcrfJaPFUOcjPl4Bi0g)--