Newsletter Lra:Yr
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Volume 26, Number 1 Armenian Bar Association - Winter, 2015 NEWSLETTER LRA:YR: A Publication for Members and Friends of the Armenian Bar Association Volume 26, Number 1 Winter, 2015 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL ISSUE years and decades to come, in picture after ing us the way. Because they did not give Chairman’s Message picture, it was one visual dirge, one unmiti- up, because they believed, then we will not Armen K. Hovannisian gated lament after another, a funeral pro- give up and we will believe. cession that lasted for nearly all of her 91 With the stories of these girls embedded years. in my life and the stories of your families Fifty years in this country and she still engraved in yours, we must see to it that The two girls were born three months spoke English in choppy sentences, mis- the chronic pain and continuing effects of and three hundred miles apart in 1909, one conjugated verbs and mixed-up tenses, the Genocide are not dehumanized, that in Kharpert’s Kessrik village and the oth- outstretched arms and expressive eyes. they are not examined only analytically er in Ordu’s seaside hills and dales. Soon She went to no schools in America, made and scientifically, that their significance is enough, my grandmothers as girls were to no friends, played no games. She bent her never lost or forgotten. Though it is now have little in common and were to become, back, swallowed her pride, and went to a hardening scab, we cannot let the bleed- by circumstance, distant strangers in fate work in Fresno’s fields. She married the ing wound to be forgotten. Only when it is and future. quiet and restrained strength of Hovakim personalized will it be real enough to play a On Saturday morning, April 24, 1915, and named her daughters Vartiter and Na- role in the decisions we make. Siroon, who had quickly come to be known zik. The son she lost was to be named Vrej, These memories of hardship may test our as Sarah and whose Nalbandian family had meaning Revenge. Maybe the boy died so hopes and try our conscience, but memory immigrated to the San Joaquin Valley just a that his name would live in us. Khnguhi’s is our sacred duty, not simply to remember, few years earlier, was skipping rope, jump- matchbox-sized house with the thin decay- however, but to act. Let us tell the world ing hop-scotch and picking up jacks among ing roof was similar to the hundreds of not only how our people died, but also friends from her first grade class at Cherry houses which Kaspar gathered. She never how they lived, how they loved, how they Avenue Elementary School. drove a car. Neither did Hovakim. hoped, how they dreamed. She was to graduate from Tulare Union As we mark the centennial of the Ar- The Armenian Bar Association is one of High School, marry early to larger-than- menian Genocide, I struggle to settle on the places where those stories can come life Kaspar, and name her four sons John, a definition of the scope of what was lost, together to be shared and where the bleed- Ralph, Richard, and Vernon into whom she what was taken. Was it only the childhood ing may finally find a way to stop. And cemented security, confidence, America and of Khnguhi and the roots of Siroon? Were although so much has already been writ- the English language. She took the helm as their sorrows and anguish really that much ten and spoken, mere words—mine and naturally in the PTA and at the Emblem different from each other in the end? Were yours--somehow are not enough. Remem- Club as she did the mantle in the Armenian they not both disinherited of their prov- brance without resolve is a hollow gesture. Relief Society and the Ladies Guild at Holy enance, dispossessed of their destinies, Awareness without action changes nothing. Trinity. Her sprawling ranch house with displaced even from themselves? This “Never again” without follow-through the thick wood shingle roof looked onto much I know; but for the Genocide, Siroon means “Wait till next time.” the Sunnyside Country Club. She drove a wouldn’t be playing hide-and-seek in Tu- As we enter the second century after the white four-door Fleetwood Cadillac with a lare and Khnguhi would have played a lot Genocide, we are now poised and prepared soft and purry velure interior. of tennis near the Black Sea. And I’d most to take care of ourselves. Perhaps it’s time Khnguhi Kalyonchian, betraying the likely be somewhere between Erzerum and that we should not coddle public officials so wistful black-and-white photograph on Kharpert. slavishly, we should not grovel to govern- the credenza projecting a thousand year- My grandmothers and yours shared a ments with upturned palms, we should not old darling little girl sporting pigtails in common fundamental characteristic: they seek shallow solace in recognitions, splin- her hair and a tennis racket in her hands, faced the darkness and insisted on a future ters of victory in resolutions. We should not bid adieu to most of her family beginning for their families, took silent oaths to not rely on someone else to make us whole. Be- on that day. Although she “survived” the give up, to say yes to life, to believe in the cause they can’t. They never could. From Genocide, Khnguhi’s smile was turned possibility of justice. To our parents, we say now on, let our redemption begin and end down that day, at once and forever. In the thank you for living strong and for show- with us. 1 Armenian Bar Association - Winter, 2015 Volume 26, Number 1 GENOCIDE REPARATIONS FEATURED AT UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE By Vaché Thomassian Attaining justice following was introduced by Armenian Bar Associa- leged unjust enrichment, breach of good mass human rights atrocities tion Chairman Ex-Officio, Garo Ghazarian. faith and fair dealing, and money had and is an arduous and complex Ghazarian’s powerful remarks evoked the received from insurance giant New York task involving both criminal spirit of Armenian lawmaker and politician Life (Marootian, et al. v. New York Life In- and civil law. The internation- Krikor Zohrab, calling for a unified front to surance Company). In Marootian, a major al community’s efforts to criminally pun- move forward the reparations movement. hurdle was overcome when the California ish human rights violators have developed Armenian Bar Associ- legislature enacted Civil Procedure §354.4, significantly over the last 70 years—from ation Chairman Armen extending the statute of limitations in Ar- the Nuremberg Trials after World War II to K. Hovannisian then menian Genocide-era insurance cases to the International Criminal Court today. In gave an impassioned 2010 (and later to 2016). That case ended the realm of civil redress for human rights speech, leading with the with a $20 million dollar settlement, dis- abuses, models exist and continue to de- real and rhetorical ques- persed to heirs of victims and community velop. tions, “Is the destruction organizations, along with attorney fees and In the Armenian case, it is important to of a nation quantifiable? costs. The next case Kerkonian discussed note that following World War I, attempts Is the decimation of a people compensable? also involved failure to pay on Armenian to criminally punish members of the It- Is what was lost, what was taken recover- Genocide-era insurance policies. The suit tihadist government for the massacre of able by any stretch of our efforts or of our against French insurance company AXA Armenians (through the Constantinople imagination? Can the decisions of a court eventually settled for $17.5 million in 2005, and Malta Tribunals) ended in dismal fail- of law, in the U.S., in Turkey, in Europe, or with payouts that began in 2007 (Kyurkjian, ure. Abandoned by the international com- anywhere, ever make us whole?” He pro- v. AXA Reinsurance Company, et al.). The munity, the task of bringing the individual vided a comparative analysis of the Arme- last case discussed was brought by Rev- perpetrators to justice was left to a group nian case with that of the Jewish people, erend Vazken Movsesian in 2003 against of extra-judicial avengers called Operation discussing the history of reparations that Victoria Insurance (Movsesian v. Victoria Nemesis. However, there remained the is- followed the Holocaust, with their roots Versicherung AG, et al.). Refusing to settle, sue of restoring the wealth, property, land in the 1951 Conference on Jewish Material Victoria argued that §354.4 was unconsti- and rights of the dispossessed Armenian Claims Against Germany. Hovannisian ex- tutional since the United States government people. For these reasons, growing atten- plained that the Claims Conference was a does not explicitly recognize the Armenian tion has been directed towards legal means coordinated effort by the State of Israel and Genocide. Attorneys for Victoria contend- of attaining monetary and territorial repa- 23 Jewish organizations to gain restitution ed that California, as a state, did not have rations in order to repair the damage felt from post-war Germany. As a result, bil- the ability to pass legislation that conflicted by victims of the Armenian Genocide and lions of dollars in reparations were paid to with federal policy. After several appeals, their descendants. Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and also Continued on page 9 This was the theme of a distinguished funded the infrastructural development of In This Issue panel held at California State University, the fledgling Jewish state. Northridge’s Armenian Studies Program The first panelist, Saro Kerkonian, delved Genocide Reparations 2 one-day conference on January 31, 2015.