A federal appellate court invalidated a California law Thursday that allowed heirs of Armenians killed in the Turkish Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago to seek payment on the life insurance policies of dead relatives.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law amounted to unconstitutional meddling in U.S. foreign policy.
For the thousands of ethnic Armenians in the central San Joaquin Valley, the ruling is the latest in a series of setbacks as they seek official recognition of what they consider a genocide.
"I feel our government is continuing to enable genocide denial," said Richard Sanikian, a Fresno resident and member of the Armenian National Committee.
Sanikian said that he didn't know of plans for any local protest of the court ruling, which favored German insurers. Ethnic Armenians had sued the insurers.
"What we need to do, though, is keep the pressure on our government to do the right thing and acknowledge the Armenian genocide."
The court based its 2-1 ruling on a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down another California law designed to help Holocaust survivors collect on Nazi-era insurance policies.
The federal government does not recognize the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, but the California Legislature did in 2000 when it enacted the disputed law.
About half of the people of Armenian descent living in this country reside in California. The 2000 census showed that more than 10,000 Armenians lived in Fresno County.
Varoujan Der Simonian, executive director of the Armenian Technology Group -- a Fresno-based nonprofit group that provides support for Armenian farmers -- said he was frustrated that the federal government had put yet another roadblock in the way of the Armenians.
"We're not talking about current geopolitical issues, but about something that happened in World War I when the U.S. and Turkey were not allies," Der Simonian said.
"Just because we're allies now, that doesn't correct past wrongs."
Lawyer Brian Kabateck, who represents Armenian-American heirs, plans to appeal.
"The ruling is wrong. It's a disaster," Kabateck said. "The one million Armenians that live in California today have been told by the court that even the use of the word 'genocide' by a government is illegal."
If the ruling is not set aside, it would prevent Armenian heirs from claiming inheritances and prohibit California and other states from marking the anniversary of the onset of the ethnic bloodshed that claimed the lives of up to 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1919 in what is now eastern Turkey, Kabateck said.
He alleges European banks and insurers illegally retained assets valued in 1915 at about $15 million, a sum worth substantially more at today's value.
The California Legislature passed the law giving heirs of Armenians who died or fled to avoid persecution until the end of next year to file claims for old bank accounts and life insurance policies.
Class-action lawsuits brought by Armenian descendants in California and other states led to a $20 million settlement with New York Life Insurance Co. in 2005 and a $17 million settlement the same year with French life insurer AXA.
William Werfelman, a spokesman for New York Life, said the company had no intention of trying to get back any of the money it paid out under the 2005 settlement.
"By acting honorably, and in keeping with our company values of humanity and integrity, New York Life made many friends in the Armenian community and we cherish these friends," Werfelman said.
Thursday's ruling reversed a lower court judge who refused to dismiss another class-action suit against two German life insurers and their parent company.
Turkey long has denied that the loss of so many Armenian lives constituted genocide. Instead, Turkey describes the deaths as resulting from civil unrest that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The appellate court agreed with the German companies that California's policy improperly conflicted with the federal government's foreign policy aims.
Attorney Neil M. Soltman, who represents the German insurers who brought the appeal, said he and his clients were pleased but not surprised by the court's ruling.
"Today's ruling is consistent with what are now a significant number of recent decisions in the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit and the California Court of Appeal holding a variety of California statutes unconstitutional because they interfered with the federal government's exclusive authority over foreign policy. In that sense the decision was entirely expected."
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