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On 9 March 2021, AVİM organized a webinar (via the Zoom platform) titled “Turkish-Armenian Relations In The American Legal And Political Arenas - Part I” at the which the speakers were David Saltzman (Attorney and Principal of Saltzman & Evinch, PLLC / Director, Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF)) and Günay Evinch (Övünç) (Attorney and Principal of Saltzman & Evinch, PLLC/ Co-Chair, Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC). The webinar was dedicated to the discussion of the present-day reflections of the issues in Turkish-Armenian relations onto the legal and political system of the United States. This webinar constitutes the first part in a series of three webinars that are planned to be organized in this context.

In his presentation, Mr. Saltzman focused on the reparation cases filed in the US by individuals of Armenian descent (the Bakalian, Davoyan, and Movsessian cases) that are designed to target Turkey and institutions, insurance companies, and banks that have a relationship with Turkey. Mr. Saltzman indicated that although the actors behind the filing of these cases initially found success, they were eventually confronted with legal defeats in the US courts and do not have a chance to proceed on legal grounds. This has led to boycott, divestment, and sanctions laws against Turkey being formulated as an alternative means to “punish” Turkey and harm its interests. This is especially true in the state of California, where Armenian Americans have a strong presence. 

Following this, Mr. Evinch delved into the topic of terrorism and violent extremism perpetrated by individuals of Armenian descent in the US. In this presentation, Mr. Evinch highlighted the disturbing scale and severity of the violence perpetrated against Turkish people by fanatical Armenian actors and indicated that the mentality that justifies this fanaticism is still present among Armenian Americans. This is evident from the recent hate crime perpetrated against a restaurant operated by a Turkish American family in the city of Beverly Hills and the heroization of terrorist Hampig Sassounian and Armenian American organizations’ insistent attempts to have him released from prison. Mr. Evinch also elaborated on the US presidential statement on the Turkish-Armenian controversy delivered every 24 April and its legal ramifications in terms of the way the US legal system functions.

The webinar was concluded with a lively Q&A session.

Please click the following links to watch the video recording of the webinar on YouTube and Dailymotion:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/sXx0XZDfJvU

Dailymotion: https://dai.ly/x7zu94a (1/2), https://dai.ly/x7zu9lq (2/2)