COURT UPHOLDS CITIZENSHIP FOR ARMENIANS
By Gillian Flaccus

The Associated Press
09/06/05 22:36 EDT

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 mass killings of Armenians during
Ottoman rule in 1915.

The men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now
have doctorates, have renounced violence and are volunteers in the
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.

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.

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.