Since most of the victims are dead, compensation is moot. Restitution for confiscated property would be up to Turkey. They could follow the example of some Eastern European countries by returning public buildings to their original owners, Churchs, Christian community buildings, things like that, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Financial instruments, bank deposits and insurance policies, there are living heirs and those can be restored. It's the one area the international community, even the US and individual states have leverage. I believe NY Life settled a number of these, at the behest of the State of California.
Yes they do. CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER PROCLAIMS APRIL 24 DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE It's very appropriate that we are talking about this today.
I grew up in Fresno, which probably had the largest Armenian population in the US. I can't recall a time when I didn't know about the Armenian Genocide. But I was shocked to discover, as an adult, that not many Americans (outside of Fresno) really knew anything about it.
The famous director, Elia Kazan was Greek and Armenian, from Turkey. He painted a picture of what life was like there in one of his interviews:
KAZAN: "The Anatolian Greeks are completely terrorised people. My father's family comes from the interior of Asia Minor, from a city called Kayseri, and they never forgot they were part of a minority. They were surrounded with periodic slaughters - or riots: the Turks would suddenly have a crisis and massacre a lot of Armenians, or they'd run wild and kill a lot of Greeks. The Greeks stayed in their houses. The fronts of the houses were almost barricaded, the windows shut with wooden shutters. One of the first memories I have is of sleeping in my grandmother's bed and my grandmother telling me stories about the massacre of the Armenians, and how she and my grandfather hid Armenians in the cellar of their home ... The Armenians were lustier, their history a much bolder, more rebellious one. The Greeks were crafty, they did not rebel and they did not get killed as much."
But, from some of his interviews, you can get that Kazan understood the roles the socially oppressed/oppressor well and how he was able to use to make great films like "A Gentleman's Agreement". He also made a film called "America, America" that dealt more directly with the Armenian Genocide and the horrendous treatment of Anatolian Greeks under Turkish rule.