US COURT APPROVES NEW YORK LIFE’S $20M ARMENIAN SETTLEMENT

A federal court in Los Angeles has approved a $20m settlement by New York Life of a class-action lawsuit that was filed on behalf of descendants of Armenians killed during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago. The court’s ruling is thought to be the first legal recognition of what Armenians claim was genocide at the hands of Turks. Armenians assert that around 1.5m of their people were killed by Turkish authorities during the eight years after 1915 in retaliation for helping the Russian army during the First World War. Turkey has denied allegations of genocide, saying that any Armenian deaths resulted from the unrest that arose during the fall of the Ottomans. New York Life had sold around 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire from 1880 to 1915, with less than half going to Armenians.