SEEKING CLOSURE ARMENIANS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST GERMAN BANKS.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

With hundreds of Armenians demonstrating outside, a class-action lawsuit was filed Friday in Los Angeles, demanding millions of dollars in assets deposited by their ancestors who were killed in the Armenian Genocide.

The suit seeks unspecified damages from Duetsche Bank and Dresdner Bank for lost assets that were deposited in Turkey by thousands of Armenians between 1875 and 1915.

It also seeks compensation for property taken by the Ottoman Turkish Empire after 1875 and claims Deutsche and Dresdner bank officials concealed and prevented heirs of account-holders from recovering the assets.

``That bank has sat on the blood money of the Armenian people who were driven into the desert and slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks,'' said Mark Geragos, an Armenian-American attorney who is representing the seven Armenians named in the lawsuit.

``We plan on accepting nothing less than full restitution, plus compound interest. We're going to teach them a little bit about what Armenian interest is.''

Jeffrey Barist, a New York attorney representing the defendants, did not return a call. Officials at Deutsche Bank declined comment.

``It's not about the money. It's about the memories and recognition and justice,'' said Katia Kermoyan-Khodanian, 44, of Glendale - an administrative assistant for Los Angeles County and a plaintiff in the suit who attended Friday's rally.

Aram Barsoumian, 43, a Glendale lawyer, joined the protest to lend support.

``This subject is like an open wound to me,'' he said. ``I am a grandchild of genocide survivors. I, like many Armenians, want closure to the issue of genocide. We want Turkey and these banks to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and make reparations.''

The rally and suit are the latest push by Armenian-Americans to get reparation in connection with the organized killing of 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman Turkey beginning in 1915.

Armenians have long sought recognition of the killings as genocide, but Turkey has denied it, saying Armenians were killed during civil unrest.

``If they have legitimate insurance policies qualifying them for death, then they should be paid by the insurance policy,'' said Engin Ansay, the consul general of the Republic of Turkey in Los Angeles.

``When the Armenians say (the banks) are accomplices in genocide, then they don't have a case because the act committed, however lamentable (and) regrettable ... was not a genocide.''

Jason Kandel, [phone]

jason.kandel(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Attorney Mark Geragos is representing seven Armenians who say their relatives were killed by the Ottoman Empire.

(2) Katia Kermoyan-Khodanian speaks at a press conference Friday. She is part of a class-action lawsuit against two German banks accused of withholding money of genocide victims.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News