“The federal lawsuit filed by Armenian-American lawyers against the Turkish government and two Turkish state-owned banks has been questioned by international law experts who say a state cannot be sued in a local court,” the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review daily reports.

“This lawsuit is just for keeping the Armenian allegations on the agenda for years; they will not win the case. It’s in preparation for an anniversary in 2015, since they are seeking a class-action status for the suit that would not end for at least five years,” international-law expert Ibrahim Kaya told the daily.

“Kaya is among the legal experts who have argued that a local court cannot sue a state under international law, saying the court should not accept the case on these grounds. Others, however, have said the court could accept the lawsuit if it deems the banks to be less than full state institutions,” the daily writes.

“Since Ziraat Bankasi and the Central Bank are state-owned banks, hypothetically they could only be sued in Turkish courts,” Kaya said. “But the Treaty of Lausanne and the Kars Agreements set a period to apply for these sorts of demands and it has already expired,” the daily reads.

“Professor Huseyin Pazarci said the American court might accept the suit, even though he believed it should not accept such a case against a state. The court will evaluate Turkish law to determine if the banks are full state organs, and could decide that the banks do not substitute for the state itself even if they are public institutions,” the daily quotes Pazarci.