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U.S. COURT BACKS ARMENIAN LAWSUIT AGAINST TURKISH BANKS
PanARMENIAN.Net
August 12, 2011
PanARMENIAN.Net - A U.S. federal district court in Los Angeles handed
Armenian plaintiffs an early victory in what will surely be a difficult
legal battle over reparations for land seized from Armenians in Turkey
during the Armenian Genocide (Alex Bakalian et. al vs.
Republic of Turkey, the Central Bank of Turkey, and T.C. Ziraat
Bankasi et. al, Case Number 2:10-CV-09596, December 15, 2010),
your-story.org reported.
Nearly eight months after the complaint was filed, the court determined
that all three defendants, in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the
United States, had been lawfully served.
The lawsuit, filed by descendants of Armenian Genocide victims,
accuses the defendants of stealing and then profiting from land that
was illegally seized during the Armenian Genocide, when the Ottoman
Turks drove Armenians from the Adana region of southern Turkey. The
property at issue in the lawsuit is currently part of a strategic U.S.
airbase in southern Turkey.
Representing the plaintiffs are the Yeghiayan Law Firm in Glendale,
Schwarcz, Rimberg, Boyd & Rader, LLP in Los Angeles and Michael
Bazyler from Chapman University School of Law in Orange.
The plaintiffs have spent recent months attempting to serve all the
defendants, and then to have the court affirm their service efforts.
In the August 2 order, the court denied Central Bank of Turkey and
Ziraat Bank's motion to dismiss the complaint for insufficient service
of process. The court acknowledged that the plaintiffs presented
"credible evidence that their process servers made several attempts to
serve the bank defendants at addresses in "New York City... [and] were
repeatedly denied access to the buildings and [were even]...misdirected
as to Ziraat Bank's actual location."
The court further found that the banks' security guards had "engaged
in behavior apparently designed to thwart service of process." The
banks did not deny having actual knowledge of the pending lawsuit,
and thus the court ordered them to serve a responsive pleading to
the complaint by August 19.
The court additionally recognize that the Republic of Turkey had also
been recently served with the complaint through diplomatic channels -
a lengthy process involving high-level contacts between the U.S.
Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Ministry - and
must also file papers responding to the complaint by August 19.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
PanARMENIAN.Net
August 12, 2011
PanARMENIAN.Net - A U.S. federal district court in Los Angeles handed
Armenian plaintiffs an early victory in what will surely be a difficult
legal battle over reparations for land seized from Armenians in Turkey
during the Armenian Genocide (Alex Bakalian et. al vs.
Republic of Turkey, the Central Bank of Turkey, and T.C. Ziraat
Bankasi et. al, Case Number 2:10-CV-09596, December 15, 2010),
your-story.org reported.
Nearly eight months after the complaint was filed, the court determined
that all three defendants, in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the
United States, had been lawfully served.
The lawsuit, filed by descendants of Armenian Genocide victims,
accuses the defendants of stealing and then profiting from land that
was illegally seized during the Armenian Genocide, when the Ottoman
Turks drove Armenians from the Adana region of southern Turkey. The
property at issue in the lawsuit is currently part of a strategic U.S.
airbase in southern Turkey.
Representing the plaintiffs are the Yeghiayan Law Firm in Glendale,
Schwarcz, Rimberg, Boyd & Rader, LLP in Los Angeles and Michael
Bazyler from Chapman University School of Law in Orange.
The plaintiffs have spent recent months attempting to serve all the
defendants, and then to have the court affirm their service efforts.
In the August 2 order, the court denied Central Bank of Turkey and
Ziraat Bank's motion to dismiss the complaint for insufficient service
of process. The court acknowledged that the plaintiffs presented
"credible evidence that their process servers made several attempts to
serve the bank defendants at addresses in "New York City... [and] were
repeatedly denied access to the buildings and [were even]...misdirected
as to Ziraat Bank's actual location."
The court further found that the banks' security guards had "engaged
in behavior apparently designed to thwart service of process." The
banks did not deny having actual knowledge of the pending lawsuit,
and thus the court ordered them to serve a responsive pleading to
the complaint by August 19.
The court additionally recognize that the Republic of Turkey had also
been recently served with the complaint through diplomatic channels -
a lengthy process involving high-level contacts between the U.S.
Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Ministry - and
must also file papers responding to the complaint by August 19.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress