Misak Torlakjan

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Misak Torlakjan

Misak Torlakjan ( Armenian Միսաք Թորլաքեան Misag Torlakian ; * 1889 in Kivschana near Trabzon , Ottoman Empire ; † November 12, 1968 in Montebello , California , USA ) was an Armenian assassin of the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation . He gained notoriety through the assassination of Behbud Khan Jawanschir , the interior minister of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan , in the context of Operation Nemesis , which had the task of killing those responsible for the Armenian genocide .

biography

Torlakjan witnessed the Turkish pogroms against Armenians as a child. At the age of 18 he therefore became a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). During the First World War he served as a spy for the Russian military behind enemy lines on the Caucasus front .

After the withdrawal of the Imperial Russian Army in 1918 and the attack by Turkey on the Democratic Republic of Armenia , Torlakjan joined the armed Armenian units under Drastamat Kanajan (General Dro) and took part in the battles of Bash Abaran , Sardarapat (now Nor- Armavir) and Karakilisa (now Vanadzor ). In Armenia he is celebrated as a hero.

In the summer of 1921, Torlakjan was sent by the ARF to Istanbul as part of the secret Operation Nemesis to assassinate the former interior minister of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, Behbud Khan Jawansheer, for his involvement in the 1918 Armenian pogrom in Baku . Torlakjan carried out the attack on July 18 in front of the Pera Palas Hotel in central Istanbul. He was arrested and tried in a British military tribunal.

From the beginning, his Armenian lawyers tried to classify him as insane. In court, Armenian, Greek and British doctors confirmed that Torlakjan had epilepsy and was not sane at the time of the crime. Torlakjan cited the murder of his wife, sister and children by Azerbaijanis before his eyes in Baku as the reason for his act . His family members had died long before in Trabzon. In the end, the court found him guilty of the murder, but came to the conclusion that Torlakjan had committed the act in a state of affect . The case shows great similarities to Soghomon Tehlirian , who was acquitted only a few months earlier in Berlin for the murder of Talât Pascha , the main person responsible for the Armenian genocide .

Torlakjan was expelled to Greece after the trial . There he was released on arrival, from where he emigrated to Romania via Serbia. After the Second World War he emigrated to the USA , where he died on November 12, 1968 in Montebello, California.

Literature and individual references

  1. ↑ Carolyn J. Dean, The Moral Witness: Trials and Testimony after Genocide (Ithaca 2019), p. 48.
  2. ↑ Мисак Торлакян (1889-1968). In: Yekramas. August 10, 2008, Retrieved December 4, 2019 (Russian).
  3. ↑ Мисак Торлакян (1889-1968). In: Yekramas. August 10, 2008, Retrieved December 4, 2019 (Russian).
  4. ↑ Carolyn J. Dean, The Moral Witness: Trials and Testimony after Genocide (Ithaca 2019), p. 48.
  5. ↑ “Turks Enraged. British Court-Martial Acquits Armenian ”, in: The Times, November 12, 1921.
  6. ↑ Derogy J .: Resistance and revenge: the Armenian assassination of the Turkish leaders . Transaction Publishers, New Jersey 1990, ISBN 0-88738-338-6 , pp. 117-121 .
personal data
SURNAME Torlakjan, Misak
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Armenian assassin
DATE OF BIRTH 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Kivschana, Trabzon , Ottoman Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1968
Place of death Montebello , California , USA