The Record Gazette, CA
Feb 15 2007
Book Reveals Incriminating records of the Turkish Islamic genocide of
Armenians and the efforts of insurance companies to cover up the
slaughter
The 20th century spawned the word "genocide," if not the concept, and
was marked by unprecedented slaughter: from the Arab Muslim massacres
of non-Arab Sudanese in Darfur to Stalinist pogroms and, of course,
Hitler’s "Final Solution" which resulted in the extermination of 6
million Jews.
But an enlightening new book by Southern California medical
researcher Dr. Hrayr S. Karagueuzian makes the disturbing case that
it is possible to heap astounding "insult" onto the unimaginable
injuries inflicted during genocide.
In his new book, "Genocide and Life Insurance: The Armenian Case,"
Dr. Karagueuzian, using documents obtained from the U.S. National
Archives and those derived from class-action insurance settlements in
the past couple of years, chronicles the Armenian genocide
orchestrated by Islamic Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923.
More than half of the 2 million Armenians in what would become modern
day Turkey perished in the slaughter, and the rest fled the country
(or were forcefully Islamized) to avoid extermination. And while the
details of the Armenian genocide are not as widely known as those of
other mass slaughters, Dr. Karagueuzian delves deeply into its
diabolical aftermath, as the Islamic Ottoman Turks tried to cash in
on life insurance policies held by the families of the murdered
Armenians.
"This book is a plea for human justice, perhaps a voice to counter
the political control of knowledge," Dr. Karagueuzian said. "I would
hope this book will result in legal and political remedies to prevent
the victims of genocide, and their survivors, from becoming twice
victimized."
Dr. Karagueuzian’s quest began when he discovered documents in the
national archives that detail what he calls the "cunning, yet
spectacular, deceit on behalf of both the insurers and the
perpetrators. My book is the first account of life insurance policy
claims in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide."
The documents led to the eventual settlement of class action
insurance claims in which the heirs of the slaughtered Armenians
received from two insurance companies $34 million. That amount is
close to the face value of the policies at the time of the genocide,
but woefully short of the billions of dollars those policies would
have been worth when the settlement was hammered out in 2004 and 2005
in the Los Angeles court system, Dr. Karagueuzian said.
The dispute began when the Islamic Ottoman Turks tried to collect the
insurance money and were rebuffed by the insurers who rightly noted
that the Turks caused the genocide and should be compensating the
victims. But the dispute evolved into what Dr. Karagueuzian argues
became a Faustian business deal between the West and Turkey, in which
the language and facts of the genocide were whitewashed. All
allusions to the Armenians were scrapped and the attorneys involved
agreed to delete the word "genocide" from the settlement papers, and
to refrain from commenting on the bloody events in the future.
"This self-serving, lawyerly deal is a clear insult to human
intellect and a blasphemy to the souls of the victims," Dr.
Karagueuzian said. "I would hope that by shining a spotlight on the
settlement, and the decades of duplicitous behavior that produced it,
that the victims and their heirs will receive some additional
recompense in the court of public opinion."
Dr. Karagueuzian’s book also offers some lessons for those involved
in present-day efforts in the U.S. to hold German and European
insurers responsible for the similar injustices done to Jews and
others exterminated on the orders of Adolf Hitler.
"Genocide and Life Insurance: The Armenian Case" is "powerfully
suggestive of all the work, the scholarship and litigation, and
perhaps political activism, facing those who believe that justice can
still be done for the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide
and the nation they represented," said Dickran Kouymjian, a professor
of Armenian Studies at Cal State-Fresno, who penned the forward of
Dr. Karagueuzian’s book.
"My book is aimed at universities, genocide scholars, politicians,
insurance companies and regulators, Armenian and Jewish charitable
associations and any others who may be in a position to learn from
this disturbing chapter in human history, and especially those in a
position to prevent a recurrence of such injustices in the 21st
century and beyond," Dr. Karagueuzian said.
About the author: Dr. Hrayr S. Karagueuzian is a research scientist
at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a professor of medicine at UCLA.
He has spent more than 20 years researching the Armenian genocide at
the hands of Islamic Ottoman Turks during the early 20th century. He
is available for media interviews, and may be contacted by e-mail at
[email protected].
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