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Book Unearths New Incriminating Evidence About Long-Censored Fraud
and Mass Murder
*
Just before the outbreak of the First World War, in April 1915, the Ottoman Turks began
a systematic elimination of its Armenian population. Persecutions continued with varying
intensities until 1923, when the Ottoman Empire was replaced by the Republic of Turkey.
More than half of the two million Armenians who lived in Turkey at the time perished
and the rest were forced to leave the country.
*
In addition to eliminating the Christian minority Armenians, the Islamic Ottoman Turks
also tried to profit from their slaughter by cashing in on the life insurance policies of the
dead Armenians - something the Nazis would do to the Jews only 20 years later.
In a rallying cry for Justice, Dr. Hrayr S. Karaguezian - research scientist at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center and UCLA professor of medicine - has released Genocide and Life
Insurance: The Armenian Case to unearth the unpleasant truth about the long covered-up
Armenian Genocide of 1915.
*
"My book is entirely document-based; drawing pertinent information from never-before processed
documents pulled from the US National Archives. It was inspired by the
discovery of a highly informative letter that was declassified only in the 1980s and which
proved instrumental for both the defendant and plaintiffs in the 2004-2005 class action
settlements in Los Angeles," Dr. Karagueuzian says. "This letter-document exposes the
cunning, yet spectacular, deceit on behalf of both the insurers and the perpetrators and is
the first account of life insurance policy claims in the aftermath of the Armenian
Genocide. It traces the efforts of insurance beneficiaries, beginning with the futile
attempts by the heirs of the victims over 90 years ago and ending with the symbolic
recognition of the victims' rights and partial compensation granted to the descendants of
some of the insured victims only in 2004-2005 in a Los Angeles court system."
*
Dr. Karagueuzian "spent the past twenty years investigating the history of just one of the
large catalogues of losses: the unclaimed life insurance policies owned by Armenian
victims of the Genocide," writes xxxxran Kouymjian, Armenian Studies at California
State University, Fresno, in a foreword to the book. "Since only a few of the actual
policies issued have survived, it is hard to imagine that tens of thousands of them were
bought by Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Since the purchasers were the
heads of households, responsible for large extended families, a considerable portion of
the Armenian population was affected."
*
"This book is a plea for human justice, perhaps a voice to counter the political control of
knowledge," Dr. Karagueuzian says. "It is hoped that this book will help the development
of more effective legal and political constructs to prevent exploitation of the victims of
genocide."
*
Dr. Karagueuzian's study "provides the essential background for understanding the recent
class action settlements of Armenian insurance claims that date back to the tragedy of the
last century." Dr. Kouymjian concludes in his forward. "It is powerfully suggestive of all
the work, the scholarship and litigation, perhaps political activism, facing those who
believe that justice can still be done for the memory of the victims of the Genocide and
the nation they represented."
*
The book also provides a comparative analysis of the victimized Jews in Nazi Germany
who, like the victims of the Armenian Genocide some two decades earlier, also owned
life insurance policies and were caught in a similar problem. The book lays the present day
efforts in the U.S. to let the German and European insurers expedite the return of life
policy benefits to the heirs of the Holocaust victims.
*
According to Karagueuzian the book with its rich documentation is "aimed at
Universities (Departments of: History, Law School, Political Science, Ethnic Studies,
Sociology, Victimology and Libraries); genocide scholars, politicians, insurance
companies and insurance Commissioners, various worldwide Armenian and Jewish
charitable and benevolent associations and organizations. It may serve as University
course material to students and for the development of effective legal-political constructs
to prevent victims' exploitation."
*
Publication Information
Date of publication October 12, 2006,
Published by the University of La Verne Press, La Verne CA.
ISBN, 0-911707-75-1,
Library of Congress Control Number, 20066906999.
*
and Mass Murder
*
Just before the outbreak of the First World War, in April 1915, the Ottoman Turks began
a systematic elimination of its Armenian population. Persecutions continued with varying
intensities until 1923, when the Ottoman Empire was replaced by the Republic of Turkey.
More than half of the two million Armenians who lived in Turkey at the time perished
and the rest were forced to leave the country.
*
In addition to eliminating the Christian minority Armenians, the Islamic Ottoman Turks
also tried to profit from their slaughter by cashing in on the life insurance policies of the
dead Armenians - something the Nazis would do to the Jews only 20 years later.
In a rallying cry for Justice, Dr. Hrayr S. Karaguezian - research scientist at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center and UCLA professor of medicine - has released Genocide and Life
Insurance: The Armenian Case to unearth the unpleasant truth about the long covered-up
Armenian Genocide of 1915.
*
"My book is entirely document-based; drawing pertinent information from never-before processed
documents pulled from the US National Archives. It was inspired by the
discovery of a highly informative letter that was declassified only in the 1980s and which
proved instrumental for both the defendant and plaintiffs in the 2004-2005 class action
settlements in Los Angeles," Dr. Karagueuzian says. "This letter-document exposes the
cunning, yet spectacular, deceit on behalf of both the insurers and the perpetrators and is
the first account of life insurance policy claims in the aftermath of the Armenian
Genocide. It traces the efforts of insurance beneficiaries, beginning with the futile
attempts by the heirs of the victims over 90 years ago and ending with the symbolic
recognition of the victims' rights and partial compensation granted to the descendants of
some of the insured victims only in 2004-2005 in a Los Angeles court system."
*
Dr. Karagueuzian "spent the past twenty years investigating the history of just one of the
large catalogues of losses: the unclaimed life insurance policies owned by Armenian
victims of the Genocide," writes xxxxran Kouymjian, Armenian Studies at California
State University, Fresno, in a foreword to the book. "Since only a few of the actual
policies issued have survived, it is hard to imagine that tens of thousands of them were
bought by Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Since the purchasers were the
heads of households, responsible for large extended families, a considerable portion of
the Armenian population was affected."
*
"This book is a plea for human justice, perhaps a voice to counter the political control of
knowledge," Dr. Karagueuzian says. "It is hoped that this book will help the development
of more effective legal and political constructs to prevent exploitation of the victims of
genocide."
*
Dr. Karagueuzian's study "provides the essential background for understanding the recent
class action settlements of Armenian insurance claims that date back to the tragedy of the
last century." Dr. Kouymjian concludes in his forward. "It is powerfully suggestive of all
the work, the scholarship and litigation, perhaps political activism, facing those who
believe that justice can still be done for the memory of the victims of the Genocide and
the nation they represented."
*
The book also provides a comparative analysis of the victimized Jews in Nazi Germany
who, like the victims of the Armenian Genocide some two decades earlier, also owned
life insurance policies and were caught in a similar problem. The book lays the present day
efforts in the U.S. to let the German and European insurers expedite the return of life
policy benefits to the heirs of the Holocaust victims.
*
According to Karagueuzian the book with its rich documentation is "aimed at
Universities (Departments of: History, Law School, Political Science, Ethnic Studies,
Sociology, Victimology and Libraries); genocide scholars, politicians, insurance
companies and insurance Commissioners, various worldwide Armenian and Jewish
charitable and benevolent associations and organizations. It may serve as University
course material to students and for the development of effective legal-political constructs
to prevent victims' exploitation."
*
Publication Information
Date of publication October 12, 2006,
Published by the University of La Verne Press, La Verne CA.
ISBN, 0-911707-75-1,
Library of Congress Control Number, 20066906999.
*