950) A Case Study in the Punishment of Armenian Terrorists

Here's background from TAT's "Murdered Turkish Diplomats page":

9. October 22, 1982 - Los Angeles, California, United States: The FBI arrests and charges four local Armenian Americans for conspiring to bomb the Philadelphia Honorary Turkish Consul General, Kanat Arbay. They are JCAG members recruited from the Armenian Youth Federation, and include: Karnig Sarkissian, 29, of Anaheim; Viken Vasken Yacoubian, 19 of Glendale; Viken Archavir Sarkissian Hovsepian, 22 of Santa Monica; and, Dikran Sarkis Berberian, 29, of Glendale. A fifth co-conspirator, Steven John Dadaian, 20 of Canoga Park, California, is arrested at Logan International Airport!in Boston, as he exits the aircraft with a briefcase containing five sticks of dynamite and the components of a detonation timer transported from Los Angeles. The five co-conspirators are called the "L.A. Five", which the FBI linked to over a dozen bombings in southern California between 1980 and 1982 as well as the assassination of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan. Speaking on behalf the Armenian National Committee of America, local representative Leon Kirakosian "condemned this effort by the FBI and local police agencies to do Turkish dirty work against the Armenian people." All five were convicted of various federal crimes, though some were given sentences so light that no jail time was served. Two of the five perpetrators, Hovsepian and Yacoubian, eventually are granted U.S. citizenship by a federal judge. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned this ruling. Pending the completion of their last ditch appeals, Hovsepian and Yacoubian will be deported to Lebanon.

Have we got that? These five Armenians were not only tied in with past criminal activities, resulting in unknown injuries and destruction, they were actually set to bomb a Turkish diplomat... not only affecting his life (okay, he is only a Turk, and nobody cares), but the lives of many innocent bystanders. A Metropolitan News report below contends the FBI concluded thousands would have died.

These five belonged to the racist AYF, first named Tzeghagrons, the singular for which literally means "to make a religion of one’s race." Patterned after the Nazi Youth, it was also called Racial Patriots. "The Racial Religious believes in his racial blood as a deity. Race above everything and before everything. Race comes first. Everything is for the race." See article of Arthur Derounian.

Yet, the California judge, Mariana Pfaelzer, loved these guys so much, she gave them a slap on the wrist and later went out of her way to make two American citizens!

Let's take a look at the mind-blowing goings-on.


TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1) California Armenians Raise $110,000 in one night
2) A Turkish-American Appeals to the Judge
3) Attorney Bruce Fein is Appalled
4) Two Rewarded with Granting of Citizenship (2 news reports)

California Armenians Raise $110,000 in one night for the defense of these criminals

Before It Happened Again.. F.B.I. Moves Against Armenian Terrorists in U.S.

ANCA-WR Chairman Steven Dadaian shares the same name with one of the terrorists. It is likely a coincidence, yet there is a precedence: ANCA Chair-man Mourad Topalian was linked to the direction of a 1980 bombing in NYC, and was convicted of lesser charges 20 years later. Topalian only served about three years.


The Armenian community in Los Angeles reacts by collecting $110,000 in one night for defense of terrorists. Five Armenian terrorists, ranging in age from 19-29, were arrested in October 1982 by the F.B.I. on charges of possessing guns and explosives and transporting explosives interstate without a permit. Four were arrested in California and one was arrested in Boston’s Logan International Airport. The five arrested are Viken Vasken Yakubian (19), Viken Arsavir Sarkisyan Hovsepian (22), Dirkan Sarkis Berberian (29), Karnig Karlos Sarkisian (29), and Steven John Dadaian (20).

According to a story that appeared in the Turkish daily newspaper Hurriyet, the terrorists were planning to attack Turkey’s Honorary Consul in Philadelphia.

Apparently these recent arrests created a strong reaction among some extremists in the Los Angeles Armenian community. To show their support they arranged a special entertainment night to raise funds for the legal defense of the terrorists. Harutinyan Gazarian, Chairman of the organization committee, has accused the United States of taking on the Armenians because the U.S. is trying to please Turkey. He also stated that they will try to gain the freedom of these “political prisoners” as they did in the case of another Armenian terrorist, Kilimjian, in France. According to Hurriyet, the Armenian community collected $110,000 in a single fund-raising night that took place in the Ferrahian Armenian Church.

ATA-USA/January 1983, p. 19

A Turkish-American Appeals to the Judge

Letter to Judge Marion Pfaelzer

November 21, 1984

Judge Marion Pfaelzer
United States Court House
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Judge Pfaelzer:

On October 10th, 1984 the Los Angeles Times reported the conviction of Viken Hovsepian, Karnig Sarkisian, Viken Yacubian and Steve Dadaian on charges of conspiring to bomb the offices of the Turkish Consul General of Philadelphia. The Times’ report stated that the court was “impressed” by the defendant’s backgrounds and, at the time of sentencing, would consider the “combination of family and sociological factors involved in their evolution as Armenian Activists.” I am writing this letter to you in the hope that you will consider its contents as you determine the sentence that you impose against these defendants.

It is clear that a federal district judge has broad discretion in criminal sentencing. The court may consider the background and prior record of a defendant before it imposes a sentence. With the enactment of the “Omnibus Victims Protection Act of 1982,” courts are permitted an even broader range of pre-sentence inquiry. The law now recognizes that the views of victims should be heard and considered by adjudicative officials.

The “family and sociological factors” which the court indicated it would consider at sentencing were originally introduced at trial as part of an insanity defense. In fact, the defense attorneys in this case have publicly stated that they preferred a non-jury trial because it would allow them a great opportunity to place on the record the political, historical and sociological factors which led their clients into this criminal activity. By this letter, I am asking the court to include in its consideration the broader legal and social implications of the defendants criminal activity before it imposes sentence. The defendants believed, and likely still believe, that they were morally correct in plotting to transport explosives from California to Pennsylvania with the purpose of detonating a bomb in or near offices used by the Turkish Government. The defendants believed, and likely still believe, that this act of terrorism would make them heroes in the eyes of their people and help redress a historic wrong. It is respectfully submitted that by their own testimony and the testimony of the experts employed by the defense, these defendants have revealed themselves to be terrorists, as cold blooded and ruthless as any in the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Irish Republican Army or the Islamic jidah.

I ask the court to consider the historic parallels among these groups. The P.L.O. and the I.R.A. justify indiscriminate bombings and bloody ambushes by pointing to the oppressive behavior of their victims. The Islamic Jidah claimed responsibility for the terror bombings of American military and diplomatic installations in Lebanon. They killed innocent people for a cause which they believed to be just. These organizations ignore the laws of civilized societies and create their own rules of behavior. They believe, as do the defendants before this honorable court, that their cause justifies their acts. How do these defendants differ from their spiritual brethren in the P.L.O., the I.R.A. or the Islamic Jidah? It is respectfully submitted that, at present, the only difference is that these defendants were prevented from completing their mission of terror by alert and effective law enforcement.

It mattered not at all to these defendants that their intended victims were innocent of any crimes against Armenians. It mattered not at all to these defendants that innocent non-Turks could have been killed had they been able to detonate their bomb. All that mattered to these defendants was vengeance for alleged historic wrongs.

The defendants relied upon the testimony of Professor Peskin, an expert on the Jewish Holocaust. They attempted to analogize the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany and the Armenian experience in Ottoman Turkey. They attempted to explain their behavior by reference to frustration and helplessness. Their analogy fails, however, because unlike these defendants, the children and grandchildren of the survivors of Nazi death camps have not resorted to the indiscriminate bombings of German offices and the killing of German government officials. The opposite, in fact, is true. Israel has condemned terrorism and has worked to prevent its spread and use.

One of the prime topics of debate during the recent presidential elections was world-wide terrorism and appropriate responses by the government of the United States. Both President Reagan and former Vice President Mondale strongly condemned international terrorism. While differing as to appropriate responses, both agreed that forceful and effective responses to acts of terrorism were required.

This court is in a unique position. It has before it for sentencing self-avowed Armenian terrorists. It is respectfully submitted that the sentences meted out by this court are important not only to these defendants but to those who encourage and support terrorism throughout this country and the world. Terrorism is never justifiable nor excusable. Those who appoint themselves as judge, jury and executioner must be punished severely for their acts. Only through severe punishment may these defendants and those who support them be made to understand that American society and American law will never condone nor tolerate the employment of political terrorism. Good families and good intentions can never mitigate crimes of the nature perpetrated and contemplated by these defendants.

I have enclosed, for your honor’s consideration, copies of scholarly papers which were presented at a symposium held on April 17-18, 1984. The paper presented by Professor Heath W. Lowry deals with 19th and 20th Century Armenian Terrorism. The paper presented by Professor Justin McCarthy is entitled “Armenian Terrorism, History as a Poison and Antidote”. These papers more fully explain the rationale behind this letter. Also included is an article from The Armenian Reporter which discusses the trial, and an Associated Press wire story on the November 19 assassination of a Turkish diplomat by the Armenian Revolutionary Army.

I sincerely thank the court for its time and consideration. All I ask is that justice be done and that the punishment suit the crime.

Very truly yours,

Nan A. Canter
Executive Director
Assembly of Turkish American Associations

Enclosures

ATA-USA/Fall 1984-Winter, p. 23


Holdwater: The appeal fell on deaf ears. It probably did not help that the judge's first name was misspelled.

Under the Omnibus Victims and Witness Protection Act of 1982, victims or intended victims of crimes have the right to be heard by the court prior to the sentencing of the defendants. All Turkish-Americans as well as all citizens and residents of the United States, have been victimized by the acts of Armenian terrorists committed in the United States. The Turkish-American association, ATAA, took the opportunity afforded by the new law to present its case before the court, also joined by a number of other organizations and individuals who felt that they, too, were victims.

Their pleas also fell on Judge Mariana Pfaelzer's deaf ears. She acted as though these criminals could do no wrong, and rewarded two with American citizenship.
Attorney Bruce Fein is Appalled

Astonishing Quest to Naturalize Armenian Terrorists

Bruce Fein - Terrorism in all its moods and tenses stalks the world like the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. As President George Bush sermonized, neutrality or indifference towards terrorism is not an option. If you are not affirmatively and aggressively against the terrorist enemy, then you are for them and will be dealt with accordingly.

In the face of the Bush anti-terrorism doctrine, a pair of convicted Armenian terrorists are boldly seeking American citizenship. They may capture that jewel to escape deportation unless the complete effrontery of the quest is brought to the attention of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the federal courts.

The astonishing tale is told in the decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in United States v. Hovsepian (September 30, 2002). In 1982, the Federal Bureau of Investigation thwarted a terrorist plot by Viken Hovsepian, Viken Yacoubian, and others to blow up the Honorary Turkish Consul General in Philadelphia. Both terrorists were Lebanese citizens and permanent residents of the United States. They repaid America's hospitality by joining the terrorist Justice Commandoes of the Armenian Genocide fanatically devoted to indiscriminate violence against Turkey to avenge the killings of World War I. Indeed, the JCAG scoffed at the sister terrorist organization, the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), as insufficiently brutal. The FBI's estimated the casualties from the foiled terrorist bombing, keenly relished by Hovsepian and Yacoubian, at 2000-3000, a staggering Al Qaeda-like abomination.

The school where Viken Yacoubian serves as principal. Can you imagine him molding impressionable young Armenian minds? At least the bars must look familiar.


The brothers in terrorism were convicted of federal crimes, sentenced, and released after serving their full prison terms. Since their release, neither has been convicted of a new crime and both have thrived within the Armenian community. Hovsepian earned a doctor's degree in international relations from the University of Southern California in 1994, and then switched to managing a hedge fund with a New York based partner. Yacoubian earned a master's degree in psychology from Marymount University in 1988, and later entered a doctoral program at USC. At present, he presides as principal of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian High School and teaches as a professor at Woodbury University. Both have assembled glowing character references, many applauding their dedication to the Armenian American community.

In 1988 and 1990, Congress amended the immigration laws to subject to deportation any alien guilty of unlawful possession of a destructive device, which covered the crimes of Hovsepian and Yacoubian. Deportation proceedings ensued. But the two appealed to the notoriously quixotic federal district Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer to block their deportations. Amidst a flurry of court skirmishing, the twin terrorists filed naturalization applications with both the INS and Judge Pfaelzer. The INS denied the outrageous overture, akin to a killer pleading for adoption by the grieving family, but the District Judge granted the two United States citizenship.

Greater folly is scarcely imaginable! Federal law (8 U.S. Code 1427 (a)) requires that an applicant for citizenship "has been and still is a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States." Neither Hovsepian nor Yacoubian come within a galaxy of satisfying those citizenship thresholds.

Affiliations are a chief earmark of moral character. Both were attached to the JCAC, a prime terrorist organization bereft of both morals and mercy. The two have never denounced the JCAC as thugs and brutes; they have never preached against Armenian terrorism against Turkey, Turkish officials, or Turkish Americans, whether in the United States or abroad. They have never disowned Armenian American hero Mourad Topalian, former Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, for his conviction in plotting the bombing of the Turkish mission to the United Nations. They have not taught ostracism or social stigma for Armenian Americans who revel in provoking antagonism towards Turkish Americans, such as disrupting innocent celebrations of Turkish culture on university campuses. Their silence speaks volumes about their continuing sympathy for Armenians who would employ violence, intimidation, or harassment to avenge "the Cause." To say nothing amidst a hurricane of evil is tacit approval, an observation especially true of Hovsepian and Yacoubian who are prominent role models and educators of the Armenian American community.

To choose violence and threats in lieu of free speech and the peaceful political processes of democracy is also to desecrate the principles of the United States Constitution. And to promote hatred and wrath towards one ethnic group in the United States, like whites inculcating revulsion of blacks during Jim Crow, shows that Hovsepian and Yacoubian prefer turmoil to good order in the United States and reject its uniquely inspiring creed: There is only one race in the country which unifies all. It is American.

By a frighteningly narrow 2-1 margin, the Ninth Circuit reversed Judge Pfaelzer's citizenship grant and returned the applications of Hovsepian and Yacoubian to the INS for an administrative appeal. But the case is destined to return to federal courts. They must be fully informed of the nature of Armenian terrorism and terrorist culture to avoid any further stumbling.

*Bruce Fein is an adjunct scholar of ATAA. The views expressed are solely his own.

The Turkish Times, Oct. 15-22, 2002

Two News Reports Provide Details on Their Citizenship

Court upholds citizenship for Armenians in Turkish Consulate plot

9/6/2005, 10:00 p.m. ET

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a judge did not err in granting U.S. citizenship to two Armenian men convicted more than 20 years ago of planning to bomb the Turkish Consulate in Philadelphia. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends a long struggle by Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian, who plotted to bomb the consulate in retaliation for the killings of Armenians by Turks in 1915. The Turkish government denies a massacre occurred.

The men, who have been out of prison since the early 1990s, now have doctorates, have renounced violence and volunteer many hours a week in the Los Angeles Armenian- American community, said Mathew Millen, an attorney who helped handle the immigration portion of their case.

Federal law currently forbids convicted terrorists from becoming citizens. But anyone convicted of an aggravated felony before November 1990 can be granted citizenship if they have been "of good moral character" for five years prior to their application, Millen said.

"They both renounced violence as a means of achieving any kind of political end," Millen said by phone. "They both have Ph.D.s, and they had a lot of witnesses who talked about their activity in the community" at their immigration hearing.

The federal government fought the citizenship application, contending that the men lied on certain portions of their applications. The 9th Circuit affirmed Tuesday a lower-court opinion that the alleged "lies" were actually misunderstandings or oversights.

"We accept the court's ruling, as we do with any ruling," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

The men were in their early 20s when they and two others were arrested in 1982 after authorities tape-recorded them planning the bombing. Authorities at the time said they were linked to the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide.

Hovsepian was sentenced to six years in prison in 1984, while Yacoubian was sentenced to three years in prison and 1,000 hours of community service.

Yacoubian is now principal of the Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School in Los Angeles' Little Armenia and has obtained a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Southern California, according to court documents.

He declined to comment when reached by phone at the school. His attorney, Michael Lightfoot, did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

(Highlighting below is Holdwater's)

Metropolitan News-Enterprise
Wednesday, September 6, 2005

Court Allows Two Convicted in Bomb Plot to Keep Citizenship

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer/Appellate Courts

A federal judge did not commit clear error when she allowed two local men who faced deportation for their involvement in a terrorist plot more than 20 years ago to become naturalized citizens, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.

In a unanimous en banc decision, the court—which last year reversed Senior U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer’s ruling in favor of Viken Hovsepian and Viken Yacoubian and ordered the judge to hear additional evidence—said the government failed to show that any of Pfaelzer’s factual findings on remand were erroneous.

Pfaelzer swore the two men in as citizens in August 2000, months after ordering that the records of their convictions be sealed, that the Immigration and Naturalization Service be enjoined from relying on post-1985 changes in immigration law to deport them.

That order came 14 years after Pfaelzer sentenced the pair to federal prison camps for plotting to blow up the Turkish consulate in Philadelphia in 1982. Efforts to remove the two Lebanese citizens from this country were described by the judge during an earlier hearing as “nothing short of lunacy.”

The FBI linked the two to the Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide, which the bureau blamed for the killing of 21 Turkish diplomats, including the Turkish consul killed in Los Angeles in 1982.

Violence Advocated

The group advocated violence against Turks in retaliation for the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in the early part of the last century and the refusal of modern-day Turkey to accept responsibility. The Turkish government calls the figure “grossly erroneous” and attributes the deaths of Armenians in that period to “intercommunal” political, rather than ethnic and religious, conflict.

The bomb plot for which the two men were convicted was exposed after the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued a warrant to tap Hovsepian’s telephone.

A co-conspirator was able to get the bomb on board a Los Angeles-to-Boston flight in October 1982, but was arrested upon landing. The FBI, which seized the bomb, contended that had it been detonated, it would have likely killed thousands of people.

When the pair was sentenced, Pfaelzer said they were “basically of good character.” She rejected calls by federal prosecutors for lengthy sentences, and issued a “judicial recommendation against deportation” for both defendants, who are permanent U.S. residents.

Under pre-1990 immigration law, a JRAD, as it was known, constituted an absolute bar to deportation based on the underlying conviction. But the Ninth Circuit ruled in 1994 that a change in the law, mandating deportation for certain offenses, took precedence over the JRAD.

Pfaelzer then ordered the convictions expunged under the Federal Youth Corrections Act which the judge found applicable because the men were less than 26 years of age when they committed the crimes and granted them citizenship.

That ruling was reversed in 2002 by a divided three-judge panel.

‘Exemplary Lives’

That court acknowledged that Hovsepian, who holds a USC doctoral degree in international relations and manages a hedge fund, and Yacoubian, the principal of a private Armenian school in East Hollywood, “have lived exemplary lives and have become pillars of their communities since their release from prison.” But the panel said it was up to the INS, not the district judge, to determine whether they remained deportable.

Last year, the en banc panel disagreed in part, saying Pfaelzer had “exclusive jurisdiction” to decide whether the two should be naturalized. But Judge Susan Graber, who authored that decision as well as the one handed down yesterday, said the district judge could not ignore their criminal convictions in making that determination.

Even an expunged conviction is relevant to the “moral character” of an applicant for citizenship, Graber said. She also concluded that the judge could not ignore changes in the applicable law, but noted that Congress expressly excluded pre-1990 convictions from the provision making an aggravated felony conviction an absolute bar to naturalization.

The en banc panel retained jurisdiction over the case and gave Pfaelzer 120 days to take additional evidence and make new findings. In doing so, she again found that the men possessed good moral character, citing their years of law-abiding activity, the respect they enjoyed in the community, and their renunciation of violence and advocacy of Armenian democracy and Armenian-Turkish dialogue.

Graber said yesterday that those findings are entitled to deference under the “clearly erroneous” standard, which generally governs findings of fact by district judges under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and are consistent with congressional intent that a felony conviction not preclude a finding of good moral character in all circumstances.

The case is United States v. Hovsepian, 99-50041.

Copyright 2005, Metropolitan News Company

It's an absolutely incredible story, isn't it?

Kemal Arikan Turkish Consul General Assassinated

The FBI linked these five Armenians to the murder, the ones who were found to have "possessed good moral character," two of whom were rewarded with U.S. citizenship.

The crime they were convicted of could have killed thousands.

It's just plain unbelievable.


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© Holdwater

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