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