A Perfect Injustice Genocide and Theft of Armenian Wealth

Except for a short period after the end of the First World War and the ensuing armistice, Turkey has consistently denied that it ever employed a policy of intentional destruction of Armenians. Th e 1913-1914 census put the number of Armenians living in Turkey at close to two million. Today only a few thousand Armenians remain in the city Istanbul and none elsewhere in Turkey. Armenian sites in Turkey, including churches, have been neglected, desecrated, looted, destroyed, or requisitioned for other uses, while Armenian place names have been erased or changed.As with the Jewish Holocaust, Armenian properties that were seized or stolen have not been restored. Sixty and ninety years after these terrible events, Jewish and Armenian victims and their heirs continue to struggle to get their properties back. Th ere has been only partial restitution in the Jewish case and virtually no restitution at all in the Armenian case.No adequate reparation for the deeds committed against the Armenians can ever be made. But resolving claims with respect to stolen property is a symbolic gesture toward victims and their heirs. Th is is unfinished business for Jewish heirs and survivor of the Holocaust, as it is for Armenians. A Perfect Injustice is an essential contribution to understanding why the issue of stolen Armenian wealth remains unresolved after all these years--a topic addressed for the fi rst time in this volume.

Introduction, A Note on the Chapters, 1. Ottoman Armenians: From Reform to Genocide, 2. Thousands of Armenian Life Insurance Policies, 3. Genocide and the Validity of Victims’ Life Policies, 4. The Perpetrators’ Claim, “The Policy Benefits Belong to Us” 5. The Insurers’ Counterclaim:, “The Perpetrator is Liable”, 6. Who is Liable? The Perpetrator or the Insurer?, 7. Dollar Diplomacy and the Extermination of a Race, 8. Settlements of Claims without Death Certificates, 9. 1915 Berlin Gold Deposit to Turkey’s Account, 10. 1916 Berlin Gold Deposit by the Ittihadists, Summary and Conclusions, Appendixes, Index, Illustrations appear between pages 72 and 73

Yair Auron