Armenian heirs try to document their loss
10/30/2005
DailyNews.com
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
The American missionary wrote his notes on a small tag, trying to keep track of the Armenian families he had come to know and whom he was powerless to save as they were deported.
"Pallanjian and family have not been heard from since leaving Platana June, 28, 1915," the Rev. Lyndon S. Crawford wrote in his notes, which he later sent to store owner Hagop Palanjian's surviving brother.
[...]
"These documents that I got - cards, letters, whatever - (were) sent by foreign missionaries, American missionaries, and I kept it for future purposes. It's a proof," said claimant Henry Palanjian, 72, whose uncle Hagop is the man Crawford's notes mention as having gone unaccounted for, along with his family.
Palanjian, a Costa Mesa resident, is seeking to collect payment for his uncle's New York Life policy. His is among nearly 4,000 claims, most of them submitted from the United States or Armenia and some of them unknowingly submitted by more than one family member for a single ancestor.
Claimants need not prove their insured relatives were murdered, because the 2004 settlement calls for the company to pay off unpaid claims on policies issued to Armenians from the Ottoman Empire during that era. More than 2,300 policies were issued.
[...]
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, said the House International Relations Committee's approval of his resolution calling on Turkey to recognize the deaths as genocide makes him hopeful the full House will do the same.
"Nations around the world have recognized the genocide," Schiff said. "Historians from all around the world have recognized it. The facts are about as clear as they can be, and I think Turkey has taken a political position, not a historical one."
[...]
The payment of the claims is expected to occur over the next year.
"I'm very pleased that so many personal stories can be told with evidence and with documentation," said Paul Krekorian, president of the Burbank school board and a board member for the settlement office.
"Because with a horrible mass crime like this, sometimes you can get lost in the statistics and when you see individual stories of how this impacted on particular families I think it's a very compelling, heart-wrenching story."
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
DailyNews.com
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
The American missionary wrote his notes on a small tag, trying to keep track of the Armenian families he had come to know and whom he was powerless to save as they were deported.
"Pallanjian and family have not been heard from since leaving Platana June, 28, 1915," the Rev. Lyndon S. Crawford wrote in his notes, which he later sent to store owner Hagop Palanjian's surviving brother.
[...]
"These documents that I got - cards, letters, whatever - (were) sent by foreign missionaries, American missionaries, and I kept it for future purposes. It's a proof," said claimant Henry Palanjian, 72, whose uncle Hagop is the man Crawford's notes mention as having gone unaccounted for, along with his family.
Palanjian, a Costa Mesa resident, is seeking to collect payment for his uncle's New York Life policy. His is among nearly 4,000 claims, most of them submitted from the United States or Armenia and some of them unknowingly submitted by more than one family member for a single ancestor.
Claimants need not prove their insured relatives were murdered, because the 2004 settlement calls for the company to pay off unpaid claims on policies issued to Armenians from the Ottoman Empire during that era. More than 2,300 policies were issued.
[...]
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, said the House International Relations Committee's approval of his resolution calling on Turkey to recognize the deaths as genocide makes him hopeful the full House will do the same.
"Nations around the world have recognized the genocide," Schiff said. "Historians from all around the world have recognized it. The facts are about as clear as they can be, and I think Turkey has taken a political position, not a historical one."
[...]
The payment of the claims is expected to occur over the next year.
"I'm very pleased that so many personal stories can be told with evidence and with documentation," said Paul Krekorian, president of the Burbank school board and a board member for the settlement office.
"Because with a horrible mass crime like this, sometimes you can get lost in the statistics and when you see individual stories of how this impacted on particular families I think it's a very compelling, heart-wrenching story."
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:58 AM
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