ANCA: court ruling puts at peril grassroots efforts

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian issued a statement regarding the 9th Circuit Court ruling in the Movsesian v. Versicherung case, which would effectively bar Americans of Armenian descent from seeking the return of stolen Armenian Genocide era insurance assets through U.S. courts, under California law.

"This ruling opens the door for foreign governments to try to roll back the clock on human rights, potentially putting at peril American grassroots efforts - along the lines of the anti-Apartheid, Darfur Genocide, and Free Tibet movements - that so often start at the state and local level, sometimes even against opposition at the federal level, before winning broad acceptance by the American people and the U.S. government," Hamparian said.

"Turkey has no right to hold all three branches of the U.S. government hostage to its irrational and hateful denial of the Armenian Genocide, a crime that has already been broadly recognized by American civil society and government, once by a U.S. President, at least twice by the House of Representatives, 42 times by separate U.S. states, and hundreds of times by municipal governments in nearly every state of our union. There is nothing in this judgment - or in any court ruling - that will stand in the way of our pursuit of a principled U.S. policy in support of a truthful, just, and comprehensive resolution of the Armenian Genocide."

"Today's court ruling highlights the ongoing human costs of the White House's complicity in Turkey's denials of the Armenian Genocide, and underscores the urgency of President Obama honoring his pledge to properly recognize this crime against humanity," concluded Hamparian.