In compliance with an agreement reached with lawyers, AXA French Company will return the insurance payments to persons, who were insured by Company Turkish branch before 1915 and fell victim of the Armenian Genocide. The Company will also open a website, where the list of the names of its former clients will be published. The Company has the list of people, who were insured in Turkey before 1915, and the list will appear at the Company website in 6 months, stated Brian Kabateck, an attorney defending interests of descendants of the Armenian Genocide victims. Besides, those who are sure their ancestry, who later fell victim of the Armenian Genocide, had been insured by AXA, can also apply for compensation. According to the agreement with the company, that has to be ratified by California Court in November, AXA will provide $17 million to cover trial expenses, as well as to notify relatives of the Armenian Genocide victims. $11 million will be provided to the foundation that starts returning insurance payments.
This is the second case, when Armenian Genocide victims attain agreement on paying-back insurance compensations. New York Life US Company agreed last year to return $20 million to heirs of the Armenian Genocide victims. According to B. Kabateck, Armenian lawyers continue search for companies like Axa and New York Life, who did not return money deposits and insurance payments of ancestors to Genocide descendants. As it cleared out, among these is Deutche Bank, which received deposits from Armenians in early 20th century. As to how substantial this claim is, the lawyer said: “We are still investigating it. But it doesn’t matter how substantial it was, because even if they did it to one person, that’s too many,” reported RFE/RL.
