(To be continued)Creating more new myths on “exterminating the Armenian people” held a central part in the activity of Dashnaktsutyun; one of those myths is the far-fetched assertion of “Armenian genocide” allegedly committed by the Ottoman government in 1915. It should be noted without exaggeration that the so-called “Armenian genocide” quickly captured the minds of all Armenians, as the myth was created not only by Dashnaktsutyun, but also all the layers of the Armenian society, including the Armenian Church; annually the Armenians mark April 24 as “Armenian genocide” Remembrance Day. Moreover, the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian Church and various Armenian organizations in many countries have been active in advocating for recognition of the “Armenian genocide” by various states and international organizations. Given that the myth of the “Armenian genocide” has played a leading role in prosperity of the Armenian terrorism, it seems that we should clarify the history of its formation.
As known, the Armenian illegal armed groups were de facto belligerent during the First World War. The armed gangs of Armenians, subjects of the Ottoman Empire, fought on the side of Tsarist Russia against Turkey; in addition, they operated in the rear of the Turkish army away from the military theatre, committed pogroms, destroyed settlements, killed people in droves (ethnic Turks and Kurds). The activities of the illegal Armenian armed groups were planned and managed by the leaders of the Armenian political parties and their cells called “committeemen”. In these circumstances, the Ottoman government decided to arrest the “committeemen”; 2,345 “committeemen” accused of anti-state activities were arrested on April 24, 1915. Catholicos Gevorg V of the Armenian Church in Echmiadzin sent a telegram to the president of the United States; in his letter, he reported the mass murder of Armenians by the Ottoman Government and requested assistance to the Armenian people. The Tsarist Russia was also informed about it. The Russian Foreign Ministry immediately sent a telegram to Russian ambassadors in London, Washington, Paris and Rome and requested them intensify their activities and achieve recognition the so-called “genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire” by Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy.
Thus, April 24, 1915, which is talked about so much by Armenian politicians, scholars and public figures, first of all, has no relation to the relocation of Armenians within the Ottoman Empire; in fact, the relocation began in late May of the same year. Second, the contrived “Armenian genocide” determined the targets of Armenian terrorists: Turkish and Azerbaijani statespeople and public figures, as well as citizens of the countries that have friendly relations with Turkey.
After the First World War and occupation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), assassination of Turkish and Azerbaijani politicians and public figures has become one of the main tasks of Dashnaktsutyun. Thus, the IX Congress of Dashnaktsutyun held in 1919 in Yerevan decided to launch a special terrorist organization named Nemesis under the overall supervision of Armen Garo, whose real name was Karekin Pastermadjian. He was a former member of the Ottoman Parliament and escaped to Tsarist Russia after the outbreak of the First World War. The coordinator of the operation Nemesis was the Turkish-born Armenian living in America Hagop Ter Hagopian better known under his better known by his nom de guerre Shahan Natalie. Aaron Sachaklian was responsible for finance, logistics and training. The list of Nemesis included 650 names of prominent political and public figures of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Soon, within a few months of 1920, prominent ADR politicians N. Yusifbeyli (May 1920), F. Khoyski and Kh. Khasmammadov (June 19, 1920), H. Agayev (July 19, 1920) victims of the Armenian terrorists. Another victim of Nemesis was Talaat Pasha, ex-Minister of Interior and ex-Minister of War of the Ottoman government. He was assassinated by Soghomon Tehlirian in front of hundreds of witnesses on one of the busiest streets of Berlin on March 15, 1921. As a result of political pressures, the trial was turned into a show with allegations of “genocide”; the Berlin district court, which was judging virtually Turkey, not Tehlirian, eventually acquitted the terrorist. The prosecutors, who demanded the death penalty, protested the acquittal, but later withdrew their claims. The court members were selected for political reasons and threatened by the advocate of the accused during the entire period. In court Tehlirian justified his actions by claiming that his family members had been killed by the Turkish government during the First World War. However, his mother and one of the brothers had lost their lives during the resettlement within the Ottoman state. According to Professor Gunther, Tehlirian himself “was busy at that time with killing the Turks voluntarily in favor of Russia”, and his “other brother joined the Russians”, his father and uncle might have been in Serbia for expanding their family business”. However, unfortunately, the Berlin District Court issued a political decision, not a legal, and, in fact, acquitted the Armenian terrorism in general and gave the “green light” to following bloody actions committed by the Armenian terrorists against the Turkish diplomats worldwide in the 1970-1980s. In connection with the the trial of the two Armenian terrorists, who assassinated the Turkish ambassador to Yugoslavia Galip Balkar on March 9, 1983, the Dashnak newspaper Armenian Weekly reported that the process “looked like “the Tehlirian process” as the terrorists could justify their actions with political demands against Turkey”. It should also be noted that the infamous Berlin district court verdict was immediately followed by serial murders of Turkish and Azerbaijani government officials around the world by Armenian terrorists. They assassinated Behbud Khan Javanshir in Istanbul (March 18, 1921), Said Halim Pasha in Rome (December 6, 1921), former Prime Minister of the Ottoman government Bahattin Seker and former governor of Trabzon Professor Jemal Azmi in Berlin (April 17, 1922), Kemal Pasha and his deputy Sureyya bey in Tiflis (July 25, 1922), Enver Pasha in Bukhara (August 4, 1922). These bloody actions marked the beginning of the next phase of the activities of the Armenian terrorist organizations.
It should be noted that a special group of the Armenian terrorist organization Nemesis, which was specialized in assassination of Ottoman state and Azerbaijan after the First World War, suspended operations in the mid-1920s, but did not cease to exist. Indeed, in a letter addressed to the editor of Christian Science Monitor in 1981, the Armenian National Committee (Los Angeles) slyly emphasized that a number of organizations (Nemesis), which existed for decades in international arena, tried to continue Armenian resistance with all possible peaceful means. In the end, many Armenians were upset for lack of results of the peaceful settlement and began to use violence. The Armenian terrorist organizations actually waited for favorable international environment for resuming their criminal activities.
Thus, the turn of XIX-XX centuries was marked by the most cruel and inhuman period of the Armenian terrorism. In the 1920-1990s, Dashnaktsutyun became a powerful political force thanks to the Armenian diaspora and pursued the program it had done in the beginning of the century. At meetings of the Armenian National Congress held after World War Two, the leaders of Dashnaktsutyun and ASALA repeatedly stated the struggle of the Armenian people against Turkey is a struggle for liberation, akin in nature to the struggle of the Palestinian people, and therefore, the tactics at this stage of struggle must be relevant: terror.
During its existence bloody practice of the Armenian terrorism was covered by long and skilful propaganda and organized psychological pressure on public opinion about the “Great Armenia” and “Armenian genocide”. As a result, for a long time, many public figures and politicians all over the world have been perceiving the Armenian terrorist organizations as part of the national liberation movement, by directly or indirectly endorsing their criminal activities. The Armenian terrorism was a means of undermining the stability of Turkey and the pressure on it from some states. The so-called “Armenian genocide”, contrary to historical facts, has become a subject of political speculation at the highest levels.
The next stage of the burst of the Armenian terrorism began with assassination of the Turkish Consul in Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar and Vice Consul Bahadir Demer on January 27, 1973 in Santa Barbara. The terrorist act was committed by Yanikian perceived as an individual Armenian terror. But it soon became clear that this action was part of the planned, organized and targeted Armenian terrorism, which had turned more destructive and acquired a truly global scale since 1975. This is also evidenced by the statement published in the US-based Armenian newspaper Armenian Reporter, which after death Yanikian wrote that he “opened a new era of political struggle” and “changed the course of Armenian history.”
Inspired by the experience of the Palestinian terrorist organizations, the Armenian organizations of France, UK, USA, Middle East came to conclusion about the ineffectiveness of the political struggle in the 1970s. In order to attract the world’s attention to the so-called “the problem of the Armenian people”, they decided to return to the method of terrorist acts. During this period, numerous terrorist groups, such as Dashnaktsutyun – Armenian Revolutionary Army, New Armenian Resistance, New Armenian Resistance for the Liberation of Armenia, Armenian Liberation Organization, Fighters for Justice for the Armenian genocide, Justice Commandos for the Armenian genocide, Avengers of the Armenian genocide were created. These groups committed more than 300 terrorist attacks against Turkish diplomats, politicians and businesspeople from 1972 to 1991. They assassinated Turkish diplomats to Austria, France, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, the USA, the UN, etc.
In order to justify terrorist acts, the Dashnak Armenian Weekly stated that “the acts of the Armenian army and commandos of justice against Turkish officials are supported by the masses of the Armenian people” and “the Armenians can wake up only as a result of these acts of violence as acts of creation since liquidating any representative of Turkey means an approval of the Armenian dignity”. The Dashnaks pointed to “the exclusive right” of the Armenians “to participate in such activities” and declared that “these actions are not terrorism”. They argued that “our business, regardless of how armed it is, has never been and is not part of international terrorism”. The 23rd World Congress of Dashnaktsutyun in 1985 adopted “The Political Platform”, which declared that “the main political goal of ARF remains the creation of a free, independent and united Armenia within the Wilson boundaries, which also covers Nakhichevan, Karabakh and Akhalkalaki”. The platform also stated that “Turkey is our enemy in resolving the Armenian questions”, “the existence of the Turkish Empire fundamentally contradicts resolving the Armenian issue”, “the Armenian people had no choice but to resort to self-defense in order to ensure their physical existence and the right to self-determination”.
In early 1970s, terrorist organization ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) with the Marxism-Leninism ideology was organized. This Armenian terrorist organization aims to create “Greater Armenia”, which would include eastern Turkey, northern Iran, present-day Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh region, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as to earn international recognition for the so-called “Armenian genocide”. This organization intends to force the Turkish government to publicly acknowledge its responsibility “for killing 1.5 million Armenians in 1915”, to pay reparations, to cede territory to the Armenians. On August 7, 1982, 10 passengers were murdered, 71 wounded by the Armenian terrorists at the Ankara international airport. When a policeman announced the information on the number of killed and wounded to one of the arrested Armenian terrorist Levon Ekmekchiyan, the latter said that “it was not enough”. Referring to the tragic events of 1915, he yelled the following words: “Over one million Armenians were killed. Who cares if 25 Turks die”.
Committing terrorist acts is the main method of this organization for achieving its goals. ASALA is supported by the Armenian diaspora in the United States, Greece, Greek Cyprus, France, Iran, Lebanon and Syria. During the Soviet time, ASALA actively used the Armenian SSR as a springboard. The terrorist act committed by ASALA militants in January 1975 in the building of the World Council of Churches in Beirut, heralded the international community about a new era in the bloody activities of Armenian terrorist organizations. The ASALA militants mark that bloody event as the beginning of their terrorist campaign. Thus, according to a spokesman of ASALA, “the first operation of his organization was held in 1975 against the office of the World Council of Churches to encourage emigration of Armenians to the United States”.
Soon numerous Armenian terrorist groups of ASALA, such as Armenian Liberation Front (1979), Armenian Liberation Movement (1981), Orly (1981), Suicide Squadron (1981), 9 June (1991), Armenian unity (1988), Union of Young Armenians (1990) were organized. Moreover, ASALA often carried out its bloody actions on behalf of Orly and 3 October. Originally the targeted of their attacks were Turkish diplomats. Subsequently, they committed numerous assaults against representatives and nationals of the countries that maintained friendly relations with Turkey and held ASALA militants in custody. During the Karabakh conflict they were engaged in supplying weapons to Nagorno-Karabakh and recruiting mercenaries and conducted numerous attacks against ethnic Azerbaijanis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
From 1975 to 1985, in 38 cities of 21 countries, ASALA terrorist groups committed more than 110 terrorist attacks, 39 of which were armed attacks and more than 70 were accompanied by bombings. As a result of the acts, 42 Turkish diplomats and 4 diplomats of other states were killed, while 15 Turkish nationals and 66 foreign nationals injured to varying degrees of severity.