Three Armenian-American attorneys, Brian S. Kabateck, Mark J. Geragos and Vartkes Yeghiayan, are in Berlin, Germany seeking to meet with officials from Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank over lawsuits stemming from the 1915 Armenian Genocide in what is now Turkey. So far, the banks refused to meet. The attorneys filed a lawsuit last year against Deutsche and Dresdner Banks charging the two banks held Armenian families' money and assets that had been deposited in their banks before 1915 and retained assets looted by the Turkish government. (Varoujan Deirmenjian, et. al. v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., Dresdner Bank, A.G., et. al., January 13, 2006, Los Angeles Superior Court).

The attorneys met with German officials while in Berlin last week. The attorneys believe the meeting was productive. The content of the meeting is confidential. At a news conference after the meeting, Kabateck, Geragos and Yeghiayan discussed the present status of the suit against Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank and asked that the banks be good corporate citizens and sit down to discuss resolution of the claims against them.

"The German government has been very admirable in acknowledging the Armenian Genocide," says Kabateck, partner with the Los Angeles, California-based Kabateck Brown Kellner. "Turkey says it didn't happen. It is shameful that Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank are acting more in line with Turkey and do not feel obligated to return assets rightfully belonging to Armenians. It just adds to the disregard and degradation of a group of people that have suffered horribly."
   
Deutsche Bank's attorneys in the United States state that the banks will not meet with the plaintiff's attorneys until pending motions seeking its attorneys' disqualification for tampering with plaintiff's expert consultant are withdrawn. "Deutsche Bank's precondition to meet with us appears to be a tacit recognition of the strength of our expert tampering charges," says Mark Geragos, partner with Geragos & Geragos. "At this point, just about all the Armenians who lived through the genocide have passed away. The German banks probably think if they wait long enough, no one will be left to seek the assets that were theirs. Armenians are a very determined people. We do not give up. Now, it's up to Armenian descendants to make sure their ancestors are not forgotten."

Kabateck, Geragos and Yeghiayan were in Paris earlier to announce the claim filing process for a $17.5 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought against French insurance giant AXA for life insurance that went unpaid to heirs of those killed during the 1915 Armenian Genocide. (Kyurkjian, et. al. v. AXA, Case No: CV 02-01750 and Ouzounian, et. al., v. AXA, Case No: CV 05-02596, U.S. District Court, Central District of California). The suit is the second of its kind. Attorneys Kabateck, Geragos and Yeghiayan are internationally representing Armenian descendants in similar cases. In Martin Marootian, et al. v. New York Life Insurance Company), they reached a settlement with New York Life in which the insurance company agreed to pay $20 million to descendants of Armenian policyholders killed during the genocide.

"These settlements have brought us one step closer to universal Genocide recognition by forcing everyone who ignorantly denies the Armenian Genocide, especially those Turkish citizens who have been blinded by years of state sponsored propaganda, to come to grips with reality and see that had there not been a genocide, these multinational corporations would not have paid millions in settlement," states Yeghiayan principle of Glendale, California-based Yeghiayan & Associates.

Armenians can obtain a list of individuals who had purchased insurance from AXA in the Ottoman Empire between 1880 and 1930 by going to www.armenianinsurancesettlement.com. The instructions are in English and Armenian. A policy claim form must be filled out and submitted to a Settlement Fund Board in order to have a claim considered for payment. The deadline for submission is October 1, 2007.