Episode 16 – Reparations after the “G” Word – Delusional Expectations and Hollow Dreams

The issue of Armenian demands for reparations has been around for a century. Demands range from monetary payments to return of estates to individuals and groups. Armenian demands for vast territories from the Ottoman Empire culminated in the never-ratified Treaty of Sevres. Those hostile demands are incorporated, unfortunately, into the current constitution of the Republic of Armenia with the term “Western Armenia” referring to Eastern Turkey. The Armenian Diaspora maintains that since the Ottoman government’s temporary resettlement order dated May 27, 1915, Tereset for short, is genocide and Turkey is the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, the remedy of restitution has not been barred by the passage of time. They seem to have pinned their hopes on the absurd interpretations of law by one Henry C. Theriault, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts, who blindly misleads the Armenian lobby with ludicrous comments like these: “…some of the Treaty of Sevres’ elements retain the force of law and the treaty itself is not superseded by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne…” This shows how far removed the Armenian Diaspora are from the reality. Two Armenian lawsuits were struck down by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in 2009 and 2012 for being unconstitutional as California usurped the federal government’s foreign affairs powers. Now that president Biden’s recognized genocide, those lawsuits mat come back only to hit another wall: international law. The Treaty of Alexandropol, signed on December 3, 1920 by Armenia and Turkey, took back the former-Ottoman lands ceded to Armenia in the Treaty of Sevres. The treaty stipulated that Armenia cede to Turkey its entire province of Kars, accept the new border and renounce the Treaty of Sèvres. Soviet Russia signed with Turkey the Treaty of Moscow on 16 March 1921 ratifying the Treaty of Alexandropol. And finally, the Treaty of Kars was signed on 13 October 1921 by the Turkey and the three Soviet republics of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. As you can see, these international agreements validate each other and their legitimacy are based on international law. Also, the claims of the naturalized American citizens of Ottoman Armenian origin are rendered baseless by the 1934-1935 Turkish American Agreement. Having studied the details of the talks and evaluated the contents of all files submitted to the State Department for compensation, Dr. Kemal Cicek, ascertained that Turkey agreed to pay in 13 installments a total of $1,300,000 for compensation. This figure alone shows that Armenian claims were found by the State Department to be grossly exaggerated. The fact that the State Department asked the Turkish government not to continue the payment to the U.S. after the 9th installment demonstrates that eligible Armenian claimants were indeed quite a few. This agreement is in full force and effect today. The Armenian Diaspora might turn up its hate-speech and malicious propaganda, defaming and demonizing all Turkic-Americans. Increase in harassment cases and Armenian violence towards Turks and Azerbaijanis are to be expected.