Armenian group sues U.S. Federal Reserve over assets ceased during Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - An Armenian group sued the U.S. Federal Reserve under the Freedom of Information Act to force the disclosure of information on gold or other assets seized from Armenians by the Turkish government in 1915.

The nonprofit Center for Armenian Remembrance said that Armenian assets called “Turkish gold” -- money totaling about 5 million pounds ($8.13 million) -- were seized during the Genocide in a court papers filed today in U.S. District Court in New York.

The seizure was made under “a Turkish directive to deem all Armenians’ assets abandoned,” Julia Greenberg, the lawyer for the nonprofit group, said in a letter to the Federal Reserve board.

The Turkish government deposited the assets in Germany’s Reichsbank, and they were later taken by the U.S. and other Allied powers at the end of World War I under the Treaty of Versailles, the center said.

The organization filed a Freedom of Information request last June with the Federal Reserve, it said. The agency said it couldn’t locate any information and forwarded the request to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which also said it couldn’t find any records.

The case is Center for Armenian Remembrance v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1:11-cv-01483, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan.), Bloomberg reported.