Insurance case in US not precedent for İncirlik

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A U.S. federal appeals court ruling against a lower court ruling allowing Armenian descendants to file claims against life insurance companies over the 1915 incidents may not serve as a precedent for three Armenians who claim their property was confiscated from them, their lawyer has said.

“The [U.S.] ruling for the moment is being applied to the cases against insurance companies, and not the [three Armenians’] İncirlik case, which is more related to stolen properties,” said Vartkes Yeghiayan, lawyer for Rita Mahtesyan, Anais Harutyunyan and Alex Bakalyan. “We would not like to characterize this ruling as evidence that the court is ‘against Armenians,’” said Yeghiayan. “It is difficult to determine if any political factors were at play in the court’s decision-making, but the fact that they mentioned the French denial law is significant in and of itself.” The federal court’s decision came after the French Senate passed a bill criminalizing denials of Armenian genocide claims.

İncirlik is now the site of a major military base in the southern province of Adana.