Month: August 2009

Court tosses Calif. law on payments to Armenians

Armenians have been told by the court that the use of the word ‘genocide’ is illegal.

By LISA LEFF (AP) – 10 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court invalidated a California law Thursday that allowed heirs of Armenians killed in the Turkish Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago to seek payment on the life insurance policies of dead relatives.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law amounted to unconstitutional meddling in U.S. foreign policy.

It based its 2-1 ruling on a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down another California law designed to help Holocaust survivors collect on Nazi-era insurance policies.

The federal government does not recognize the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, but the California Legislature did in 2000 when it enacted the disputed law.

About half of the people of Armenian descent living in this country reside in California.

Lawyer Brian Kabateck, who represents Armenian-American heirs, plans to appeal.

“The ruling is wrong. It’s a disaster,” Kabateck said. “The one million Armenians that live in California today have been told by the court that even the use of the word ‘genocide’ by a government is illegal.”

If the ruling is not set aside, it would prevent Armenian heirs from claiming inheritances and prohibit California and other states from marking the anniversary of the onset of the ethnic bloodshed that claimed the lives of up to 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1919 in what is now eastern Turkey, Kabateck said.

He alleges European banks and insurers illegally retained assets valued in 1915 at about $15 million, a sum worth substantially more at today’s value.

The California Legislature passed the law giving heirs of Armenians who died or fled to avoid persecution until the end of next year to file claims for old bank accounts and life insurance policies.

Class-action lawsuits brought by Armenian descendants in California and other states led to a $20 million settlement with New York Life Insurance Co. in 2005 and a $17 million settlement the same year with French life insurer AXA.

William Werfelman, a spokesman for New York Life, said the company had no intention of trying to get back any of the money it paid out under the 2005 settlement.

“By acting honorably, and in keeping with our company values of humanity and integrity, New York Life made many friends in the Armenian community and we cherish these friends,” Werfelman said.

Thursday’s ruling reversed a lower court judge who refused to dismiss another class-action suit against the German life insurance companies.

Turkey long has denied the loss of so many Armenian lives constituted genocide and instead describes the deaths as resulting from civil unrest that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The appeals court agreed with the German companies that California’s policy improperly conflicted with the federal government’s foreign policy aims.

Neil Soltman, the lawyer who represented the German insurance companies that prevailed in the case, said his clients had stood to lose in payouts to Armenian-Americans in California. Soltman said it was not clear the companies ever sold life insurance policies to victims of the Ottoman Empire violence.

“We are very pleased with the decision. We think it is entirely consistent with recent Supreme Court cases and 9th Circuit cases which have held that California and other states should not be passing legislation that deals with questions of foreign affairs,” he said.

The court recounted successful efforts by former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to defeat congressional legislation that would have recognized an Armenian genocide.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who as a state assemblyman co-wrote the law that was overturned by the 9th Circuit, was perplexed by the court’s reasoning.

“You have a group of people that has a government that hasn’t had the will to recognize the genocide and as a result of that failing, are being told they don’t have valid insurance claims,” he said.

More coverage (from here: )

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From: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/State-can-t-let-Armenian-victims-heirs-sue-3220858.php

State can’t let Armenian victims’ heirs sue

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, August 20, 2009

(08-20) 14:25 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A California law allowing heirs of victims of the Armenian genocide to sue in state courts for unpaid insurance benefits is unconstitutional because it conflicts with U.S. foreign policy, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The law contradicts past presidents’ opposition to describing Turkey’s slaughter of as many as 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling.

The same panel struck down another California law Wednesday allowing owners of art stolen by the Nazis to sue for recovery of their possessions until the end of 2010.

The court ruled that both laws intruded into the federal government’s exclusive authority over foreign affairs. State and federal courts have also have invalidated California laws that would have allowed suits over Holocaust-era insurance benefits and slave labor during World War II.

“The federal government has made a conscious decision not to apply the politically charged label of ‘genocide’ to the deaths of these Armenians during World War I,” said Judge David Thompson, who wrote the majority opinions in both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s rulings. “Whether or not California agrees with this decision, it may not contradict it.”

The case decided Thursday was brought by a Southern California man of Armenian descent whose class-action suit accused insurance companies of failing to pay benefits on their policies.

His lawyer said he would ask the full appeals court for a rehearing.

The attorney, Brian Kabateck, said there was no conflict between the state law and federal policy. About 40 states have passed resolutions recognizing the Armenian genocide, with no public objections by the U.S. or Turkish governments, he said.

Neil Soltman, lawyer for one of the insurance companies in the case, said the ruling was consistent with past decisions overturning “efforts by California to adopt legislation which interferes with one or another aspect of the national government’s foreign policy.”

The law, passed in 2000, refers to mass killings, death marches and other abuses of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923 as the Armenian genocide, a description that most historians also accept. The measure allows victims’ descendants to sue insurers doing business in California for unpaid benefits until the end of 2010.

The court said national policy on the issue was defined by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who opposed congressional resolutions that described the killings as a genocide. The presidents’ warnings that any such measure would damage U.S. relations with Turkey persuaded House leaders to drop the resolutions without a floor vote three times, the court said.

President Obama said during his campaign that the nation deserves “a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide.” But he refrained from using the term during a trip to Turkey in April. His administration has not taken a position in the court case.

E-mail Bob Egelko at [email protected].

Yeghern

8/20/2009 4:53:29 PM

Since when are States forbidden to deal with genocide issues?Lets close down museums and change school curriculums for fear of offending the Turkish ambassador who wrote to the US Federal Judges telling them to stay out of genocide!Devastating decision for US justice..

purkel

8/20/2009 4:33:48 PM

The USA should not overlook any evidence of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Shame on Clinton and Bush.

username withheld

8/20/2009 4:01:09 PM

This comment violated SFGate’s Terms and Conditions, and has been removed.

Read more: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/State-can-t-let-Armenian-victims-heirs-sue-3220858.php#ixzz0OmABenFF

August 21, 2009

Between Fact And Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon Investigation

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Cem Ryan, Ph.D. Istanbul,

Between Fact And Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon Investigation
by Gareth H. Jenkins

Silk Road Paper
August 2009

© Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program –
A Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center
Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, 1619 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
Institute for Security and Development Policy, V. Finnbodav. 2, Stockholm-Nacka 13130, Sweden
www.silkroadstudies.org

Preface
Contemporary Turkish politics is striking for many reasons, not least the fundamentally opposing and mutually exclusive narratives by which domestic as well as foreign observers describe its major fault lines. Hence the irreconcilable descriptions of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, in power since 2002: its supporters describe it as a the Muslim world’s equivalent of Christian Democracy, the political force that is ridding Turkey of its authoritarian past and making it a European democracy. Its detractors, however, accuse it of seeking to islamicize the country’s state and society, muzzling independent media and criticism, moving it in the direction of authoritarianism, and in the process driving Turkey away from Europe. Descriptions of the mainly nationalist opposition to the AKP are equally divided, ranging from seeing these forces as well-intentioned supporters of Turkey’s secular republic to being authoritarian-minded, fascistoid groups that clamor for a return to military rule.

One issue that most observers of Turkish politics can agree on, however, is the murky nature of aspects of its recent history. For decades, the existence of shadowy networks with connections to state institutions has been common knowledge. These networks, known as the “deep state,” have been known to do the state’s “dirty work,” such as targeting terrorist sympathizers with extra-judicial killings; but they have also been known to collude with organized crime and to undermine Turkish democracy. This cabal was epitomized by a massive scandal that erupted following a 1996 car crash outside the hamlet of Susurluk in Western Turkey, in which a high-level politician, a wanted criminal and a police chief were found to have been traveling together.

Such shady connections do not make Turkey unique. Indeed, among countries that come to mind is Italy, where the deep connections between the political elite and the mafia were gradually unearthed by the 1990s, not least by a meticulous official investigation process known as “clean hands” or Mani Pulite. The launching by Turkish prosecutors of a far-reaching investigation into the “deep state” activities in 2007, therefore, seemed to present a historic opportunity to unearth the truth about the less flattering aspects of the country’s recent past. The investigation, soon dubbed “Ergenekon” after the alleged name of the network being investigated, appeared to provide a major chance for Turkey to take a major leap forward in its democratization process. The deep wounds of the past – felt especially by leftists, Kurds and pious Muslims, all of which had suffered at the hands of the state and its cronies – could now perhaps begin to be healed. As such, the Ergenekon investigation was widely welcomed both within Turkey and among its Western well-wishers.

The lack of trust in the judiciary’s independence and Turkey’s polarized political climate, however, made the investigation’s task delicate. From the outset, views of the investigation seemed to divide roughly into the categories described above: AKP supporters viewed it as the “cleaning of the century,” and urged prosecutors to leave no stone unturned; while the government’s detractors feared a politically motivated witch hunt of opponents of the AKP and, more broadly, the Islamic conservative camp. Much therefore rested on the prosecutors’ conduct – their following of due process, their respect for the rule of law, and their efforts to provide an evidence-based investigation.

Two years since its inception, the Ergenekon case has mushroomed beyond all expectations. In over a dozen predominantly pre-dawn raids, hundreds of suspects have been detained and/or questioned, and almost two hundred have been charged. Prosecutors have so far produced two indictments running a total of several thousand pages, and both a third and a fourth indictment are rumored to follow in coming months. But far from convincing its critics, the Ergenekon investigation has become ever more controversial. On the one hand, it has clearly uncovered information on wrongdoing on the part of some of the accused, and certainly on the prevalence of democratically questionable views among a section of the Turkish elite. But that said, the prosecution appears to have failed to live up to the high judicial standards that Turkey’s population were entitled to expect, leading to serious doubts concerning the investigation’s conduct, and ultimately, its motives.

Several factors have fed these concerns. Firstly, every pre-dawn raid appeared to net an increasingly unlikely batch of suspects. Gradually, a pattern emerged whereby prosecutors could show little or no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of a substantial proportion of the suspects, many of whom appeared to have nothing in common except their political opposition to the AKP in particular and to Islamic conservatism in general. Secondly, as the investigation dragged on, concerns mounted regarding the length of time suspects spent in detention without being formally charged with any crime. Third, it gradually became clear that the case not only made claims that defied reason – such as implicating the supposed Ergenekon organization in every act of political violence in Turkey’s modern history – but also that the investigation included deep inconsistencies and internal contradictions. Fourth, the systematic leaking of evidence from the investigation to the pro-AKP press, which appeared to serve the purpose of intimidating the opposition, had by mid-2008 become a serious concern that compromised the integrity of the investigation. In sum, at the time of writing, the Ergenekon investigation has led to a climate of fear spreading in the ranks of the substantial section of the Turkish population that is opposed to the AKP government and to Islamic conservatism.

In turn, the growing controversies surrounding the Ergenekon case are making it increasingly likely that it will form a missed opportunity for Turkey to effectuate the cleansing and healing process that is so necessary for the country to move forward in its democratization process. indeed, if this opportunity is squandered, that would make the likelihood of any future reckoning with the crimes of the past ever more remote.

In view of the Ergenekon investigation’s massive impact on, and far-reaching implications for Turkey’s society and politics, it is all the more surprising that it has been subjected to so little analytical treatment. Indeed, studies of the case seldom go beyond newspaper-length articles that can at best highlight only limited aspects of the issue. This is in all likelihood a factor of the sensitive and infected nature of the case, as well as a result of the prohibitive size of the indictments, which has deterred even those scholars that do have a command of the Turkish language from acquiring a serious enough knowledge of the case to speak authoritatively on the subject.Yet that is exactly what Gareth Jenkins has done. A long-time and respected observer of Turkish politics and society, Jenkins is ideally placed to understand, as well as explain, the intricacies of the Ergenekon investigation. His published works to date include monographs both on the Turkish military and on Turkish political Islam, both key ingredients in the maze of relationships that make up the context of the Ergenekon investigation. Not standing at that, Jenkins is among the few to have studied both indictments in the case in detail. It was therefore natural for the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program to commission Jenkins to conduct an in-depth analysis of the case. The result is the present paper, whose conclusions concerning the Ergenekon case should form essential reading for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Turkish politics.

Those conclusions, however, are not encouraging. They suggest, in fact, that the prevailing Western view of the Ergenekon investigation as a step forward in Turkey’s democratization process is misplaced. Indeed, they also imply that the Western tacit encouragement of the investigation – though diminishing in emphasis as concerns have mounted even there – should be tempered with a much more acute concern for the investigation’s breaches of the rule of law and due process. Coupled with other developments of concern in Turkish affairs, not least the growing intimidation of independent media, the Ergenekon investigation is certainly worthy of much closer monitoring and analysis. This study may constitute the first serious analysis of the Ergenekon case. However, that should not imply that this study aspires to be termed definitive. Indeed, given the substantial implications of the issue, it is to be hoped that the study will be followed by additional analyses from both legal and political perspectives, which are direly needed to help shed light on this very important aspect of modern Turkish life.

Svante E. Cornell
Research Director, Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center

READ FULL STUDY AT:

Posted by Cem Ryan, Ph.D. Istanbul, Turkey————————————————– [email protected] at 3:18 PM Labels: Erdoğan, ergenekon, Fethullah Gülen. Turkey

3 comments:

Anonymous said…

All of this has been known from the start of this scum but the supposedly enlightened and civilized intellectuals of our Western allies(!)turned their head away from the facts. How can an individual of any contemporary nation respect and tolerate the present medieval rulers of Turkey? How could their use of familiar terminologyy such as democracy, freedom and the like and their Western style outwear be convincing enough to regard them as civilized humans? Their minds are set to some fifteen hundred year old ideas, beliefs and practices of Islam. If not, they are using these outdated primitive values to fool the extremely ignorant and helpless people of Turkey. Should the gradual discovery by the Western intellectuals of the shameful acts of the fascist Turkish government encourage us that the tide will perhaps turn to the other side? I doubt it so long as greed prevails in the West more than in any other part of the world. Westerners are simply in the process of taking their revenge back from Turkey whose destiny, it appears, was reversed but temporarily by its legendary founder and leader Mustafa Kemal when he kicked out the greedy Westerners out of this land. But the West especailly the US and its European allies will never give up!

August 18, 2009 8:08 PM

Anonymous said…

Let’s face it if even a single atrocity of the kind the Turkish government and judiciary have been committing in the Ergenekon incident had been committed by a government which is an adversary of the Western governments, the West would have raised hell by now! No?
If you do not think so, you have no idea how much the rulers of the present Turkish government are alike the Taliban in Afghanistan! If you don’t believe see the photograph of Mr. Erdogan bowing to an Afghan religious leader at the level of his knee!

August 18, 2009 8:48 PM

Nevin said…

What Turkey needs is a cleansing process from both the military elites and the Islamic fundamentalists… For the last 60 odd years, these two powers have been struggling for internal power and finally it came to a end with the Ergenekon fiasco…Turkey needs “real” democracy not the fake AKP kind or coupes that destroyed the soul of the country….

PS: A great article!

August 18, 2009 9:53 PM

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August 21, 2009