ATAA Welcomes Federal Court Decision Rejecting Armenian Reparations

ATAA welcomes the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals invalidation of the 2000 Poochigian Law, in Movsesian v. Victoria Versicherung, et al.

In 2000 California enacted a law sponsored by state Senator Chuck Poochigian that sought to force insurance companies that had sold life insurance in the Ottoman Empire to Ottoman Armenians in effect to pay reparations to Armenian claimants under the disputed theory that they died from acts of genocide.

Armenian American claimants sued the insurer, Victoria Verischerung, and its re-insurer, Munich Ruckversicherung, both German companies. The Republic of Turkey notified the Court of the continued diplomacy between Turkey and the United States on the Armenian matter.

The Court invalidated the Poochigian Law because it unconstitutionally interfered with U.S. foreign policy not to prejudice Turkey with an unproven allegation of genocide. The Court's opinion can be read at: www.ca9.uscourts.gov 

ATAA President Günay Evinch commented in the media that even U.S. states that are heavily influenced by Armenian ethnic politics cannot defy the foreign policy preferences of the President of the United States: "The United States does not define the Armenian case as genocide. The U.S. supports Turkey's proposal to Armenia to establish a history commission." Turkish Media coverage can be found at www.ataa.org.

In 2005, Evinch predicted that the Poochigian Law would fail on constitutional grounds. Click here to read, "The Armenian Cause Today", The Turkish American, Summer 2005. Evinch stated that the Armenian American lobby is trying to capitalize on the precedent of Holocaust reparations. Evinch now predicts that the Supreme Court will not grant the claimants a further hearing, as the matter has long been settled in prior decisions.

The Circuit Court's ruling comes shortly after ATAA and its California-based Component Organizations, the Turkish American Association of California (TAACA) and the Association of Turkish Americans of Southern California (ATASC), in cooperation with the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF) and Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB-USA), defeated California Assembly Bill 961 which similarly sought to penalize companies that did business in the Ottoman Empire and who do business in Turkey today. ATAA President-Elect Ergün Kırlıkovalı and longtime ATAA volunteer Karahan Mete lead more than 25 Turkish Americans to provide public statements at the California Assembly. An elderly Turkish American woman placed roses on the podium for each of her family members who was massacred during the Armenian Revolt (1885-1921), that caused the deaths and displacement of over 600,000 Muslims and Jews in Eastern Ottoman Anatolia.