U.S. CITIZENSHIP GRANTED TO TWO ARMENIAN MEN CONVICTED OF PLANNING TO BOMB THE TURKISH CONSULATE IN PHILADELPHIA
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7. ARMINFO. On September 6, A federal appeals court
ruled Tuesday that a judge did not err in granting U.S. citizenship to
two Armenian men convicted more than 20 years ago of planning to bomb
the Turkish Consulate in Philadelphia. According to Monterey Herald,
the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends a long
struggle by Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian, who plotted to bomb
the consulate in retaliation for the massacre of Armenians by Turks
in 1915. The Turkish government denies a massacre occurred.
Federal law currently forbids convicted terrorists from becoming
citizens. But anyone convicted of an aggravated felony before November
1990 can be granted citizenship if they have been “of good moral
character” for five years prior to their application, Millen said. The
men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now have
doctorates, have renounced violence and volunteer many hours a week
in the Los Angeles Armenian-American community, said Mathew Millen,
an attorney who helped handle the immigration portion of their case.