In less than two months, a group of U.S. Armenians will claim in a US court the land on which America’s Incirlik air base was built in Turkey, the article by British journalist Robert Fisk reads.

Three Armenians, who are US citizens, will assert their rights to land several miles from Adana, where US Air Base Wing are based in NATO’s southern command.

In Fisk’s words, a century ago, these very lands - with “excellent facilities”, their two runways and aircraft shelters – belonged to Armenians living in Adana.

Almost all the Armenians living there were exterminated during the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman government. The base is also home to Turkish fighter squadrons, which bomb Kurdish rebels, the article reads.  

The hearing to be held on August 9 in California will discuss the rights of Alex Bakalian, Anais Haroutounian and Rita Mahdessian. Another thirteen Armenians may also join the complaint.

Lawyers for the three Armenians have seized on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent remarks, in which he recognizes the genocide committed by ISIL against Christians, Yazidis and Shi’ite groups.

“There can be little doubt, however, that this far distant and historically based case contains an explosive political message: if the Armenian genocide is acknowledged by a US law court, it can only be a matter of time before the government in Washington is forced to use the very same word for the mass killings of 1915,” Fisk notes.