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ANKARA: Two Armenians In Bombing Case Granted US Citizenship - Turki

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  • ANKARA: Two Armenians In Bombing Case Granted US Citizenship - Turki

    TWO ARMENIANS IN BOMBING CASE GRANTED US CITIZENSHIP - TURKISH PAPER

    Hurriyet website, Istanbul
    7 Sep 05

    Text of report by Turkish daily Hurriyet website on 7 September
    subheadings as published

    The United States has given American citizenship to two Armenians who
    had plotted a bomb attack against the Turkish consulate in Philadelphia
    20 years ago because of the "good character that they have demonstrated
    since 1992".

    Justification good conduct

    US citizenship has been granted to Viken Hovsepian and Viken Vasken
    Yacoubian, who had plotted a bomb attack against the Turkish consulate
    in Philadelphia, on the grounds of the "exemplary conduct" they have
    demonstrated since 1992.

    The American Ninth Circuit Appellate Court rejected an appeal
    against the granting of US citizenship to the pair, and approved
    their citizenship.

    Had attacked with dynamite [as published]

    Five Armenians, including Hovsepian and Yacoubian, both born in
    Lebanon, had been arrested in October of 1982 on grounds of attacking
    the Turkish consulate with dynamite. [as published; they had in
    fact been arrested prior to any attack, on suspicion of conspiring to
    conduct one, and were later convicted of transporting explosives across
    a state line.] Hovsepian, who has now received his citizenship, had
    been declared "the organizer of the plot, and the most culpable among
    the five defendants". In their 1984 trial, Hovsepian had received a
    six-year sentence, while Yacoubian had been sentenced to three years
    imprisonment and a thousand hours of community service.

    The US citizenship applications of Hovsepian and Yacoubian had been
    accepted a while ago, but federal attorneys had appealed by saying that
    the pair had made certain false statements in order secure citizenship.

    The appellate court, rejecting the appeal, approved the granting of
    citizenship to Hovsepian and Yacoubian.

    Impressed with background

    The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that US Federal Judge Mariana
    Pfaelzer [who had presided at the defendants' original trial], had
    in handing down her [original] decision stated that she had been
    "impressed" with the defendants' backgrounds. Defence attorneys had
    interpreted the statement of Pfaelzer, who had not fully specified
    in what way she had been impressed, as follows: "I think the judge,
    with those words, was referring to familial and sociological factors
    that had pushed our defendants into becoming Armenian activists."

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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