Armenian Genocide

Martin Marootian, a retired pharmacist who stood up for Armenian genocide victims as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that resulted in a $20-million settlement from New York Life Insurance Co. for failing to honor claims on policies sold to thousands of Armenians slain during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, has died. He was 95. Marootian died Feb. 25 of natural causes at his home in San Diego, said his daughter, Andrea. In 1999 Marootian joined a legal battle to force New York Life to honor policies purchased by more than 2,000 Armenians, most of whom perished in what some historians have described as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant's two-year endorsement deal with Turkish Airlines has sparked protest among Armenian Americans in Los Angeles and nationwide, some threatening to boycott the basketball player unless he backs out of the contract. In a statement announcing the deal, Turkish Airlines described Bryant as a "global brand ambassador. " The airline is seeking to publicize the start of nonstop flights in March between Istanbul and Los Angeles with the basketball star appearing in a blitz of TV, billboard, print and online ads early next year.

J. Michael Hagopian, an educational filmmaker who spent 40 years gathering the testimonies of Armenian genocide survivors to provide evidence of one of the most contentious events in world history, died of natural causes Friday at his home in Thousand Oaks. He was 97. His death was announced by the Armenian Film Foundation, which he established in 1979 to preserve Armenian heritage and culture. The filmmaker was a survivor of the genocide, which historians estimate resulted in the deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman-ruled Turkey beginning in 1915.

Descendants of Armenian victims of genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks can sue insurance companies for unpaid claims over the atrocities, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a rare reversal. The same three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in August 2009 that lawsuits were barred by a federal government policy against legal reference to the Armenian genocide despite laws in California and 41 other states recognizing the massacre of 1.2 million Armenians that began in 1915 amid the chaotic collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Seven illustrated pages ripped out of a medieval Gospels manuscript: Who owns them; who should own them? Those who value them as works of art, or those who revere them as religious objects? The seven pages feature beautiful illuminations by Toros Roslin, the most important Armenian miniatures painter of the Middle Ages. Their value is immense as artifacts, but also as rare witnesses to the memory of a nation almost erased from history. The manuscript from which the pages were torn was lost during the Armenian genocide of 1915-22.

Despite pressure from activists and lawmakers, President Obama on Saturday again refused to declare the 1915 mass killings of Armenians a genocide. In a statement to mark Armenian Remembrance Day, Obama described the killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century." He referred to it as a "devastating chapter," and said that "we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past."

Today isn't so much a red-letter day on the Armenian calendar as a black-letter one: the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in Turkey. The Armenian American names Saroyan and Deukmejian, California writer and governor, respectively, might ring a bell. Here's one that sounds a klaxon: Harut Sassounian, one of the most visible Armenian Americans in a dozen time zones. As president of a major charity, he has delivered above half a billion dollars in medical supplies, computers and vital equipment to Armenia.

Analyzing Ashburn Re "State senator says he is gay," March 9 When state Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) came out of the closet, he said he voted against gays because he felt that's the way his constituents would want him to vote. Let's say you can understand that. Can you also understand him presenting himself falsely when he ran for office because that's the way his constituents wanted to see him? Alan Burnett Burbank Let me get this, er, straight.

An estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the final throes of the Ottoman empire. That blood bath, carried out by the Turks between 1915 and 1918, was genocide, and should be called by that name. In approving a nonbinding resolution to make this the official U.S. position, Chairman Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) and other members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee were responding to constituent demands that the United States take a moral stand. Now, Congress and the Obama administration must decide whether such a symbolic act also serves the strategic interests of the United States.

Sponsors of a long-debated congressional resolution to officially recognize the Armenian genocide cleared a key hurdle by a one-vote margin Thursday, but face a tough battle ahead to bring the measure before the House. The resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee 23 to 22 over opposition from members of both parties who warned it could damage U.S. relations with Turkey, an important ally. The Turkish government reacted immediately, recalling its ambassador, Namik Tan, in protest, and warning that the resolution's adoption "could adversely affect our cooperation."