Genocide families get $17M payout

Descendants of victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, many of whom

are Glendale residents, will share $17 million in restitution as part

of the settlement of a federal class-action case announced Wednesday.

The claim was brought forth by seven Armenian Americans, some of whom

live in Glendale, said Mark Geragos, the attorney who filed the

claim.

The settlement was reached with French insurance company AXA Group

for unpaid life insurance policies, said Geragos, whose grandparents

and great-grandparents came to the United States to flee the

genocide.

The settlement must be approved at a hearing in a Los Angeles

federal court Nov. 14, Geragos said.

If the settlement is approved, the attorneys will advertise for

class-action members who will have a chance to prove their damages,

he said.

“I cannot guestimate how big this class will be but the amount of

money per person would appear to be outstanding for a class-action

suit,” Geragos said.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished at the hands of the

Ottoman Turks during the genocide of 1915.

It is the oldest case in terms of the date of damages to the date

of settlement, Geragos said.

Under terms of the settlement, AXA will donate a minimum of $3

million dollars to France-based Armenian charitable organizations and

contribute $11 million toward a fund designed to pay restitution for

valid claims of heirs of policyholders issued by AXA Group

subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire prior to

1915, Geragos said.

Some of these policyholders and beneficiaries were among the 1.5

million Armenians who perished and were unable to obtain their

insurance proceeds in the ensuing chaos, he said.

The case could be filed in the U.S. because French-based AXA does

business in the United States through various subsidiaries, Geragos

said.

While the restitution is significant, recognition of the genocide

is important to many Armenian Americans.

“This is yet another step in the pursuit of justice toward the

restitution for victims of the Armenian Genocide,” said Zanku

Armenian, a board member of the Western Region of the Armenian

National Committee based in Glendale. “Second, the settlement has to

be approved by a federal court, which means it recognizes the events

of 1915 and that it was a genocide.”

Geragos and Armenia also support a resolution in the U.S. House of

Representatives that would recognize the events of 1915 as a

genocide.

There are still some living survivors but most in the class are

descendants, Armenian said.

“The real point of all this is to show there is some level of

restitution and justice delivered to the victims or their

descendants,” Armenian said. “With each one of these steps the

Turkish government has to come to terms with its past.”

About 40% of Glendale’s population is of Armenian descent, which

is the highest concentration anywhere outside of the Republic of

Armenia, Armenian said.

Geragos and fellow attorneys Vartkes Yeghiayan, and Brian S.

Kabateck -- all of Armenian descent -- represented Armenian

descendants in a separate class action in which New York Life agreed

to pay $20 million to descendants of Armenian policyholders killed

during the genocide.

About 3,000 claimants came forward, not all of whom will be

accepted as part of the class action, Geragos said.o7

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