May 3, 2003 - 21:20 AMT
GERMAN LAWYER OFFERED AID TO FORMER ARMENIAN PRISONERS OF FASCIST CONCENTRATION CAMPS FOR GETTING COMPENSATION
Stephan Tashchian German lawyer is going to help 2 thousand Armenians, who were kept in fascist concentration camps during World War II in getting compensation. As it is known, after two years of negotiations, in 2000 German government signed a law on rendering compensation to former toilers of fascist concentration camps via "Memory, Responsibility, Future" fund. According to "EurasiaNet," "Arminfo" agency reports, beginning on that day S. Tashchian periodically paid visits to Armenia and met with representatives of relevant organizations, afterwards representing interests of former Armenian prisoners in Berlin. During his last visit to Yerevan he held a meeting with the leadership of the Armenian Union of War Veterans and discussed the opportunities of application of the German law to Armenian captives. Archives of the State Security Committee, German government and German branch of the Red Cross, as well as those of companies, which in their time made use of the work of those people, are used as main sources for searching for people, who were kept in fascist concentration camps. Initially German government impeded Tashchian's activities, but now its attitude is respectful. In the lawyer's words, if one bases only on juridical facts, chances for getting compensation in full are not so high. In the course of a recent visit to Armenia Tashchian paid some 200 euros to each former prisoner of German concentration camps. At the same he expressed hope for five Armenian families to get a compensation of 8000 euros soon.