GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL EXTENDING TIME FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SUITS
By Kenneth Ofgang, Staff Writer

Metropolitan News-Enterprise, CA
Sept 27 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation giving victims
of genocide in Armenia and their heirs and beneficiaries another 10
years to sue for the loss or theft of assets deposited in European
or Asian banks.

SB 1524, which the governor signed on Monday, extends the limitations
period for such claims to Dec. 31, 2016. The bill is similar to prior
legislation allowing additional time for victims to sue for unpaid
insurance proceeds or restitution of misappropriated artworks.

A group of plaintiffs earlier this year sued Germany’s Deutsche Bank
and Dresdner Bank. The putative class action complaint filed in
the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in
Deirmenjian v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., CV 06-00774, alleged the banks
wrongfully held Armenian assets and froze Armenian bank accounts
during the period of the Armenian Genocide.

The plaintiffs are represented by three attorneys of Armenian descent,
Brian Kabateck, partner with Kabateck Brown Kellner; Mark Geragos,
partner with Geragos & Geragos; and Vartkes Yeghiayan of Yeghiayan
and Associates.

"Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank were approached by Turkish leaders to
store Armenian artwork, gold and other valuables that were illegally
seized by the Turks during the Armenian Genocide," Kabateck explained
in a release. "The assets and the money deposited by Armenians in
these banks mysteriously disappeared and were considered lost for
decades. With most of the rightful owners massacred, these banks
apparently thought they could get away with stealing family assets
from an entire generation of Armenians. A new generation of Armenians
has set out to right this wrong."

The class action plaintiffs estimate that the banks took more than
$22.5 million in looted assets, based on 1915 dollars.

Schwarzenegger also signed AB 424, permanently designating April 24
as the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

He explained in a statement:

"Between 1915 and 1923, a systematic and deliberate campaign of
genocide by the Ottoman Turkish government resulted in the deaths
of over 1.5 million Armenians and the exile of a people from their
historic homeland. During this period, tens of thousands of displaced
Armenians took refuge in the United States, many in California. These
survivors embraced this country and this state. Among them and their
descendents emerged leaders in business, agriculture, sports, academics
and the arts. Today, a few survivors remain as a living testament to
the horror that took place 90 years ago. We must recognize crimes
against humanity if we are to prevent them; silence in the face of
genocide effectively encourages those who would commit such atrocities
in the future."

The Turkish government has called the 1.5 million figure "grossly
erroneous" and has attributed the deaths of Armenians in that period to
"intercommunal" political, rather than ethnic and religious, conflict.

Schwarzenegger earlier signed a bill directing the state’s public
employee retirement funds to divest from companies that do business
in Sudan, where the government persists in denying reports that
an estimated 200,000 black Africans in the Darfur region have been
killed and many times that number displaced as a result of attacks
by Arab militias.