Money can't bring back lives lost.
It can't bring back grandmothers, grandfathers, parents, children
or ancestors never known.
But it can be a step on the long road to healing, justice and a
better community.
Representatives from the Glendale-based Armenian Educational
Foundation and Burbank-based Armenian Church of the North America
Western Diocese received checks this week for more than $333,000.
It was part of a settlement reached last year in which insurance
company New York Life agreed to settle with descendants of victims of
the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
Ultimately, organizations and descendants throughout the country
will receive a share of the $20-million settlement. Families in the
class-action suit accused the insurance company of not paying out
more than 2,000 policies purchased by their relatives in the Ottoman
Empire.
The Turks are said to have killed more than 1.5 million Armenians
in the genocide, a term Turkish officials have said is not warranted
because there was no intent to kill off a nation in the middle of a
conflict over the Ottoman Empire.
But more than a million people perished, and many of their
families have waited years to claim their rightful share to insurance
claims on policies purchased by 2,300 people in the early 20th
century.
Nearly a century of on-again, off-again legal wrangling is a long
time to wait. Too long. But on Monday, at the Pasadena home of Brian
S. Kabateck, one of the attorneys who orchestrated the settlement, it
was good to see justice as the organizations received their share of
the settlement pie.
From the looks of things, that money will go to good use.
The Armenian Educational Foundation provides scholarships for
needy students, funds after-school programs for as many as 1,400
Burbank and Glendale students and helps rebuild schools in Armenia.
We hope the money shared bolsters our community. It can't bring
back the lives cut short, but it reminds us that the past is not
dead.
Perhaps the past, thanks to the tenacious efforts of these
victims' families, can help transform new lives through two local
organizations' efforts.
For more information, visit
http://www.armenianinsurancesettlement.com
