051115 - LE PAURE DI ANKARA..

LE PAURE DI ANKARA..--The New York Times CEDE A ALLE LAMENTELE DI AZEBAIJAN..!

Ankara Fears from the Obligation to Pay Compensation to the Heirs of Armenian Genocide Victims
Turkey has begun a campaign against insurance companies that express readiness to pay compensation to the heirs of genocide victims.
The government of Turkey has approved the proposal of political strategists insisting on the necessity to discredit Western insurance companies yielding to the pressure of Armenian organizations. The newly established structure in Ankara, known as «the commission for denying the invented Armenian genocide» has sanctioned actions of protest against the decision of French «Axa» insurance company which has agreed to make concessions to Armenians. It is worth reminding that as a result of the judicial process started by the claim of heirs of Turkish Armenian insurance policy holders, the parties reached an agreement according to which the company engaged itself to pay 17 million US dollars to the heirs of insurance holders who had suffered from the events of 1915.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «Axa» insurance company has worked in the Turkish insurance market for already 110 years and has earned hundreds of million dollars thanks to its Turkish clients. This is exactly what enrages Ankara. In spite of the threat to lose a very perspective market, the French company has decided to pay the debts to genocide victims, since reputation means much for them. «Memur-Sen» - one of the largest trade unions in Turkey, has come up with the initiative of organizing actions of protest against the decision of «Axa» company. The trade union promises to conduct actions of protest in front of all the 80 branches of the company, calling citizens to refuse the services of the French company. It should be taken into account that the management of «Axa» has recently announced that the decision is not political, but purely legal. In the announcement it was also stressed that the signed agreement is not meant to qualify the events of 1915 as genocide.

This is not the first “action of frightening” organized against “Axa”. Last week statements of protest were made also by “Oyak” pension fund that serves the military personnel of the Turkish army. The fund has closely cooperated with «Axa» company for quite a long period, but when the well-known agreement was signed, «Oyak» broke relations with “Axa” demanding «public apologies». Moreover, the head of «Oyak» pension fund Ahmet Axu demanded from «Axa» and other Western insurance companies functioned in the Ottoman Empire to «pay compensation to the Turks, killed by Armenians».

The extremely painful reaction of Turks to the readiness of the insurance company to bear responsibility to its Armenian clients seems inadequately harsh only at the first sight. Seemingly, Turks have nothing to worry about, since the compensation is to be paid by the French and not by themselves. But in Ankara they realize that the rising wave may turn to a storm which will strike a powerful blow not only to the reputation of Turkey but also to its financial system. «Axa» is yet the second company that has agreed to pay compensation. (As it is known the first company was the American «New York Life Insurance») But when the campaign picks up speed and power, insurance company owners and bankers will have to put the blame on Turkey to avoid disaster. Sooner or later the following question will emerge – where are the properties that were once insured by Turkish Armenians? Why do those properties do not belong to the former residents of Western Armenia? The objective answer to these questions will make insurance company owners and bankers, influenced by Armenian lobby, demand compensation from the successor of the Ottoman Empire, that is to say from the Turkish Republic. By the calculation of the chairman of the Assembly of Turkish Organizations of America Erjument Kilich the compensation sum may be estimated at trillions of dollars. Will the Turkish economy bear such a blow?
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department
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