Court upholds citizenship for Armenians in Turkish Consulate plot

9/6/2005, 10:00 p.m. ET

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a judge did
not err in granting U.S. citizenship to two Armenian men convicted more than
20 years ago of planning to bomb the Turkish Consulate in Philadelphia.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends a long struggle
by Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian, who plotted to bomb the consulate in
retaliation for the massacre of Armenians by Turks in 1915. The Turkish
government denies a massacre occurred.

The men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now have
doctorates, have renounced violence and volunteer many hours a week in the
Los Angeles Armenian-American community, said Mathew Millen, an attorney who
helped handle the immigration portion of their case.

Federal law currently forbids convicted terrorists from becoming citizens.
But anyone convicted of an aggravated felony before November 1990 can be
granted citizenship if they have been “of good moral character” for five
years prior to their application, Millen said.

“They both renounced violence as a means of achieving any kind of political
end,” Millen said by phone. “They both have Ph.D.s and they had a lot of
witnesses who talked about their activity in the community” at their
immigration hearing.

The federal government fought the citizenship application, contending the
men lied on certain portions of their applications. The 9th Circuit affirmed
Tuesday a lower court opinion that the alleged “lies” were actually
misunderstandings or oversights.

“We accept the court’s ruling, as we do with any ruling,” said Thom Mrozek,
spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

The men were in their early 20s when they and two others were arrested in
1982 after authorities tape-recorded them planning the bombing. Authorities
at the time said they were linked to the Justice Commandos of the Armenian
Genocide.

Hovsepian was sentenced to six years in prison in 1984, while Yacoubian was
sentenced to three years in prison and 1,000 hours of community service.

Yacoubian is now principal of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in
Los Angeles’ Little Armenia and has obtained a doctorate in counseling
psychology from the University of Southern California, according to court
documents.

He declined to comment when reached by phone at the school. His attorney,
Michael Lightfoot, did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

Hovsepian is now a hedge fund manager and speaks to youth groups about his
experience and the importance of nonviolent protest, said his attorney,
Barry Litt.

“He’s a very different person than the person he was in the early 1980s,”
Litt said of his client. “He’s a contributing member (of society).”

Tuesday’s decision marks the end of a complex case that began almost as soon
as the men were released from prison.

The men applied for citizenship in 1997 but then sued to have their cases
decided by a federal judge when immigration officials didn’t rule on their
applications within 120 days, Millen said.

In 2001, the same judge who presided at the men’s 1984 trial opted to
administer the oath of citizenship after reviewing their files.

But last year, the 9th Circuit ordered U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer
to reconsider the case after including in her review evidence from the bomb
plot, which had previously been under seal.

Pfaelzer again ruled in favor of citizenship, saying the men had “completely
reformed,” but the federal government appealed on grounds the men lied in
portions of their applications.

The FBI has said the bomb plot, in which five sticks of dynamite were flown
to Boston, could have killed thousands of people.