The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
This is to refute the baseless claims and arrogant demands made by the Armenians in a letter to you recently. Kenneth v. Hachikian, chairman of ANCA -the same organization previously headed by a convicted Armenian terrorist, Topalian, who shamelessly stored explosives next to a school, daycare, and a gas station in Ohio until caught in the act by the FBI-
The discourteous Armenian letter was urging you to reject the ruling of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Movsesian v. Versicherung A.G. (No. 07–56722, August 20, 2009), which found a California partsian law providing remedies to ethnic Armenians in life insurance matters during an alleged genocide. This bizarre demand, a clear evidence of lack of understanding of American government, totally contradicts the separation of powers in U.S. A. The impolite Armenian letter also seemed clueless about the federal supremacy law, which stipulates that state laws cannot void or overrule federal laws.
Demanding that the U. S. Government violate bilateral agreements with the sovereign Republic of Turkey by asking the White House to interfere with the decision of U. S. Court of Appeals is simply un-American.
Furthermore, the term genocide is not based on a verdict by a competent tribunal and reflects a biased interpretation of WWI events, ignoring the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict [i.e. tumult (revolts), terrorism, treason, territorial demands, Turkish suffering, and TERESET, temporary resettlement order of May 27, 1915.] Not all killing, suffering, and war crimes are genocide. For a genocide verdict, intent of the perpetrator must be proven at a competent court after due process. That was never done in the Turkish-Armenian conflict. The «Armenian Genocide» allegations are political charges based on hearsay, forgeries, falsifications, fabrications, distortions, and outright lies. Turks suffered, too, at the hands of Armenians and the U.S. archives of the era can attest to that.
Most importantly, ANCA should learn that the Turkish Republic had agreed with U.S.A. on Dec. 24, 1923 to investigate and redress all claims of losses suffered by the U. S. Citizens, until that date. A joint Committee, empowered with another agreement dated October 25, 1934, did collect and verify all submittals, upon which a third agreement of «Adjustment of Payment» No.168 dated Sept.8, 1937 was concluded with Turkey. U.S.A. confirmed with letter No.93, dated Sept.23, 1937 to the Republic of Turkey, that «…when the agreed amount is paid, Turkey will be fully discharged of the obligations previously agreed…» Turkey had fulfilled the agreement by paying the claimants and the matter was permanently and irrevocably settled.
If you ever decide to meet that nagging, demanding, deceptive ANCA, please do yourself a favor and invite us, Turkish-Americans, as represented by ATAA, FTAA, and others, to the same meeting and let us dismantle their bogus Armenian claims effortlessly… and with great pleasure.
Sincerely,
Ergun KIRLIKOVALI
ATAA, President-Elect
FTAA, Western Regional Director
ATASC, Past President
ANCA’s letter to Obama
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to urge you to take immediate steps to publicly reject the flawed ruling of a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Movsesian v. Versicherung A.G. (No. 07-56722, August 20, 2009), that struck down a California law providing remedies for Armenian Genocide-era wrongs, and argued that state level recognition of this crime contradicts “express federal policy” and is therefore unconstitutional.
You bear direct responsibility, Mr. President, by virtue of your failure to keep your repeated, crystal clear pledges to recognize the Armenian Genocide, for the Court’s judgment that it is the official policy of the Executive Branch of the United States government to actively oppose proper recognition of this crime and, upon this basis, to thus prohibit states from passing laws to help Armenian Genocide-era victims seek to reclaim lost or stolen property. The Court’s interpretation of your broken promise marks an unmistakable and historic low in our government’s long complicity in Turkey’s campaign of genocide denial.
As you know, over 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives and, of course, many more were deprived of their property as a result of the Ottoman Turkish government’s systematic and deliberate campaign of race extermination. It is particularly tragic, given the thorough understanding that you have articulated regarding the moral, historical, and political meaning of this crime, that, it is under your leadership that the United States government is today not only engaged in complicity in genocide denial, but also, according to a judicial ruling, actively working to ensure that the remaining survivors and their families are denied avenues to seek to reclaim property lost during these massacres.
Your Administration’s policies, as understood and affirmed by the Court, in addition to blocking legal redress for U.S. citizens, have now opened the door—in unprecedented and profoundly dangerous ways—for interests aligned with the Turkish government to seek to roll back several generations of American civil society efforts to mark this tragedy, including through formal recognition by 42 U.S. states. As such, we once again urge you to publicly reject the Court’s interpretation of your Administration’s position and call upon you to honor your covenant with American voters to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide.
In closing, I would like to stress to you, once again, how broadly and profoundly disappointing your failure to honor your many commitments on issues of special concern to Armenian American citizens has been for the ANCA, a grassroots organization that, based upon your track record and series of publicly stated commitments, enthusiastically endorsed your candidacy and successfully mobilized an unprecedented community drive to help secure your election. In the wake of your many broken campaign commitments, your silence in the face of this profoundly misguided judicial action would compound the Armenian American community’s sense of betrayal regarding your Administration’s behind the scenes efforts to block adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, your White House’s use of Turkey’s cynically-inspired “roadmap” to defer U.S. recognition, and your State Department’s shameless pressure on Armenia to accept the artificial “historical commission” that Ankara has long advanced to prevent the proper recognition of this crime.
We remain ready, as we have shared with you on a number of past occasions, to meet with you to discuss these matters personally and in greater detail.
[signed]
Kenneth V. Hachikian
Chairman