Belated justice: Some Valley Armenians will share in an insurance settlement.

11/14/06

A small measure of justice will soon flow to some of the survivors
and descendants of victims of the genocide against Armenians carried
out by the Ottoman Turks in the latter days of World War I. The New
York Life Insurance Co. will issue checks as part of a settlement of
claims by the heirs of genocide victims who purchased life insurance
policies from the company many decades ago.

A number of the survivors live in the Valley, and will receive checks
ranging from $1,000 to $44,000, depending on the value of the original
policy.

The New York Life settlement totals $7.9 million. The sum was agreed
upon in 2004; it has taken a while to determine the names and the
validity of the survivors and their claims. A similar settlement –
for $17 million – was reached with a French life insurance company
last year.

Armenians in Armenia will receive $3.4million of the New York Life
settlement. Armenians in the United States will get $2.6 million,
and Armenians in France will share more than $650,000.

In addition, legal claims are being pursued against a pair of banks
in Germany that are believed to have sequestered millions of dollars
in deposits from genocide victims and never returned the money.

Such payments are perhaps more important for their symbolism than for
the actual dollar amounts the survivors and descendants will receive.

Simply paying such settlements is a powerful acknowledgment of the
validity of the claims of genocide survivors, something Turkey has
resisted mightily since the killings took place.

Turkey has been abetted in its denial by a U.S. government, led
by the State Department, that has, for geopolitical reasons, never
acknowledged the genocide itself – despite promises to do so from
several presidents of both parties and efforts by many in Congress
to see that the historical truth of the genocide is recognized.

That will be the big victory for the dwindling number of genocide
survivors and their descendants. In the meantime, it’s nice to be
able to savor some small triumphs in this decades-long battle for
recognition and justice.

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