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U.S. Air Force personnel walk past an entry at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. STAFF SGT. REBECCAH A. WOODROW U.S. AIR FORCE<\/p><\/div>\n
Suppose the U.S. built and operated a military base in Germany on property confiscated from Jews during the Holocaust. America, Jewish Americans, Germany, and Israel would have reached a principled resolution years ago.<\/p>\n
Now consider Incirlik (EEN-jeer-leek) Air Base in Turkey. American taxpayers and the Army Corps of Engineers built it 67 years ago. Its 3,320 acres are home to the U.S. Air Force\u2019s 39th Air Base Wing, B-61 nuclear weapons, thousands of American military personnel, and American businesses.<\/p>\n
Turkey stole many of those acres from Christian Armenian families during the 1915-23\u00a0Armenian Genocide<\/a>. Relatives of such Armenian families fled to the U.S. and settled in cities like Fresno.<\/p>\n Yet the U.S. State Department has habitually shielded Turkey from accountability in this and related instances.<\/p>\n The air base knows its past, though. In 2007, then base commander, Col. Murrell Stinnette,\u00a0held<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cTown Hall meeting [on Congress\u2019s] Armenian Genocide Resolution.\u201d The base\u00a0encourages<\/a>\u00a0visits to\u00a0Levonkla<\/a>, a nearby\u00a012th century<\/a> Armenian castle.<\/p>\n Turkey committed genocide against 1.5 million Armenians and\u00a0seized<\/a>\u00a0nearly everything they owned in cities and towns such as Incirlik: homes, businesses, ancient churches and monasteries, farms, schools, personal property, valuables, antiquities, and bank accounts.<\/p>\n In Los Angeles Federal Court in 2010, Americans Alex Bakalian, Anais Haroutunian, and Rita Mahdessian\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0Turkey, its Central Bank, and Ziraat Bank for confiscating their relatives\u2019 Incirlik property (122 acres) during the genocide.<\/p>\n The plaintiffs sought over $65 million based on the land\u2019s market value, plus a portion of Incirlik rent that Turkey had\u00a0collected<\/a>\u00a0from the U.S. as of 2010.<\/p>\n Days earlier<\/a>, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had\u00a0upheld<\/a>\u00a0California Law 354.4<\/a>.\u00a0Modeled<\/a>\u00a0after California\u2019s Holocaust claims statutes, the law\u00a0extended through 2016<\/a>\u00a0the period during which Turkey could be sued.<\/p>\n In 2019, however, the same court\u00a0decided<\/a>\u00a0against<\/a>\u00a0the plaintiffs: the lawsuit was\u00a0\u201ctime-barred\u201d<\/a>\u00a0due to\u00a0statute of limitations<\/a> guidelines.<\/p>\n Similar lawsuits have yielded mixed results.<\/p>\n Many Armenians bought life insurance from New York Life, AXA France, and Germany\u2019s Victoria Versicherung AG before the genocide. But the companies shamefully avoided paying surviving family members. In 2004-5,\u00a0NY Life<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0AXA France<\/a>\u00a0settled out of court for $40 million.<\/p>\n The German firm evaded responsibility even though Germany \u2014 Turkey\u2019s WWI ally \u2014 facilitated the Genocide.<\/p>\n In 2006, Armenian Americans\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0Germany\u2019s Deutsche and Dresdner banks. Each had seized Armenian accounts and assets post-Genocide. These institutions, too, dodged accountability.<\/p>\n Congress, particularly the House\u2019s bipartisan, 126-member\u00a0Armenian Caucus<\/a>, could help the foregoing cases with legislation similar to the California law, but which courts couldn\u2019t override.<\/p>\n Recall that Congress\u00a0recognized<\/a>\u00a0the Armenian Genocide in 2019 with near unanimity.<\/p>\n Congress has\u00a0often<\/a>\u00a0facilitated\u00a0recovery<\/a>\u00a0of property stolen during the Holocaust, including $1.25 billion in Jewish assets appropriated by\u00a0Swiss banks<\/a>.<\/p>\n American relations with Turkey have deteriorated due to President Erdogan\u2019s 17-year record of bellicose conduct against the U.S., NATO, and Israel.<\/p>\n Turkey\u2019s internal repression, corruption,\u00a0support<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0ISIS<\/a>, threats against Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia, far-fetched claims over Mediterranean Sea resources, aggressive neo-Ottoman\/pan-Turkic policies, purchase of Russian S-400 missiles, and threats over Incirlik haven\u2019t helped relations.<\/p>\n In 2016,\u00a0demonstrators<\/a>\u00a0burned American flags and demanded that the U.S. leave the base. In\u00a02017<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a02019<\/a>, Turkey threatened to\u00a0cut off<\/a>\u00a0American access to Incirlik.<\/p>\n