Armenian Genocide Reparations Study Group
RESOLUTION WITH JUSTICE – Reparations for the Armenian Genocide
Richard J. Wilson
American University – Washington College of Law
2014
14 International Criminal Law Review 332, (2014)
Abstract:
This article argues that United Nations human rights principles and new developments in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights suggest a route to provide effective reparations through the restoration of historical memory and dignity for victims of the Armenian Genocide.
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BY UMIT KURT
Haytoug Summer 2016 Issue
On 27 May 1915 the Ottoman government, using the ongoing world war as a pretext, made the decision to deport its Armenian citizens to the regions of Syria and Iraq, which at that time were Ottoman provinces. However, the true aim was not to change the locations of the Armenians, but to annihilate them. This deportation and destruction also gives rise to an important question: What was going to happen to the properties the Armenians left behind? How would they be administered?
A series of laws and decrees, known as the “Abandoned Properties Laws” were issued in the Ottoman and Turkish Republican periods concerning the administration of the belongings left behind by the Ottoman Armenians who were deported in 1915. The best-known regulation on the topic is the comprehensive Council of Ministers Decree, dated May 30, 1915. The Directorate of Tribal and Immigrant Settlement of the Interior Ministry (İskan-ı Aşâir ve Muhacirin Müdiriyeti) sent it the following day to relevant provinces organized in 15 articles. It provided the basic principles in accordance with which all deportations and resettlements would be conducted, and began with listing the reasons for the Armenian deportations. The most important provision concerning Armenian properties was the principle that their equivalent value was going to be provided to the deportees.
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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The legal procedures over the issues of the Armenian Genocide are brought to a new level, Chairman of the Board of the Armenian Legal Center for Justice & Human Rights (ALC) Kenneth Hachikian said, reports “Armenpress”.
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BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
PUBLISHER
THE CALIFORNIA COURIER
AUGUST 9, 2016
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in Pasadena, California, on August 4, regarding two lawsuits on Armenian properties confiscated by Turkey in 1915-23: Bakalian and Davoyan vs. the Republic of Turkey and its Central and Ziraat Banks. A District Court had dismissed these lawsuits in 2013 on grounds that they dealt with a political issue which came under the purview of elected officials, not the courts.
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By ROBERT FISK
INDEPENDENT
Incirlik is America’s forward air base in Turkey, take-off point for the US air battle against Isis. But in less than two months, a group of Armenians, all descendants of the 1915 genocide of one-and-a-half-million Christians massacred by Ottoman Turkey, will claim in a US court that the land on which America’s jets take off to bomb Syrian and Iraqi targets belongs to them, and must be returned to their families.
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Brussels, 31 May, 2016.- The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) organized a conference titled “Armenian Genocide: Recognition and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, Legal and Political Aspects” in the European Parliament, in Brussels; the conference was hosted by member of the European Parliament, Dr. Charles Tannock (UK, ECR).
Invited panelists to this conference were Cem Sofuoglu, Turkish human rights lawyer and local counsel, leading the lawsuit of the Catholicosate of Cilicia against the Turkish government, which seeks the return of the historic seat of the Catholicosate, located in Sis (currently Kozan), Dr. Ove Bring, Professor Emeritus of International Law, Stockholm University and the Swedish Defence University, Mr. Dogan Ozguden, Turkish journalist and publisher and Mr. Guillaume Perrier, French journalist and author, who was the correspondent of “Le Monde” in Istanbul, in the years 2004 – 2014. The moderator was Mr. Hagop Der Khatchadourian, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee-International.
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He stated that the Armenian Genocide was committed by the party-army-people cooperation, that’s why we deal with the issue of collective responsibility. “Besides the fact that Turkish people gained material interest from the Genocide, they declared the perpetrators of that crime as their heads which is another issue of responsibility. From this perspective, the recognition of the Genocide will mean destruction of paradigm of the country’s foundation,” he said.
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ANKARA, Turkey (ARMENIAN WEEKLY)—The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey released a statement on April 24 condemning the Turkish government’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and urging a full restoration of justice. Specifically, the HDP called for recognition of the genocide of Armenians and Syriacs (Assyrians), reparations for genocide victims, and the return of all seized and appropriated properties taken during and after the crime.
The statement also called for the lifting of the unilateral blockade imposed by Turkey on Armenia; the removal of genocide denial and hate speech from Turkish textbooks; an end to Turkey’s policy of racial and religious profiling; and the granting of citizenship to all those who trace their roots to the country.
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By Tom Samuelian
If the horrors of 2015 and 2016 have taught us nothing else, it is that genocide reparations in 2016 are more pressing than a century ago – and not primarily for the Armenian victims and their descendants, but for international peace and security. The consequences of impunity for the Armenian Genocide have compounded for a century and now once again threaten the security of the community of nations. As the past year’s public statements and centennial events made amply clear, the Armenian Genocide has been recognized, over and again, even by those
countries and leaders that from time to time stammer at uttering the word. Paradoxically, this has multiplied the hazard of impunity. Commemoration without atonement teaches the wrong lesson. Continue reading →