3367) Armenian Assassin Hampig Sassounian's Parole Pushed

Other Hampig Sassounian Related Posts at This Site:

• Hampig Sassounian: An Archetypal Example of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism
• Remembering The Orly Attack
• Can The Armenian Issue Be Solved Legally?” French Historian Maxime Gauin Argues
• Misuse of “Memoirs of Count Bernstorff” in Armenian Nationalist Publications
• Documents Critical of Armenia
• Pursuing The Just Cause Of Their People A Study Of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism by Michael M.Gunter
• Report On Armenian Terrorism And JCAG Terrorist Hampig Sassounian
• Hampig Sassounian's Parole Hearing, 2006 With A Few Analyzing Footnotes
• Breakdown of Armenian Terrorist Incidents, 1973-1987 & Comparing the Black Liberation Army to the Dashnaks
• Appeal verdict convicting Hampig - Harry- Sassounian (1986)

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By Gene Maddaus
The case of Hampig Sassounian has been a cause celebre within the local Armenian community for nearly 30 years. In 1982, Sassounian and an accomplice assassinated the Turkish consul general, in an act of revenge for the Armenian genocide.

Sassounian was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. But ever since, a dedicated group of Armenian activists has been campaigning for his release.

Those activists have now turned their attention to the race for L.A. County district attorney. The D.A. has opposed Sassounian's requests for parole in the past.

But in endorsement interviews with the Armenian National Committee last week, the L.A. Weekly has learned, three D.A. candidates were asked to take a neutral position when he comes up for parole again in 2013 . . .
According to the candidates, it's the only time that a particular case has been raised in an endorsement interview.

Each of the three campaigns tell the Weekly that they made no commitments on the Sassounian case.

"Carmen Trutanich is not going to prejudge any case before he gets to the D.A.'s office," says spokesman Dave Jacobson. "He said he would be open to it. But he's not going to form some sort of judgment on the case without having all the details in front of him."

"I listened to what they had to say," says Chief Deputy Jackie Lacey, who was more familiar with the case. "I did not make any commitments one way or the other."

"I indicated there was absolutely no way I would prejudge a case," says prosecutor Alan Jackson. "I haven't read the file or had access to it or been associated with it."

William Bairamian, the executive director of the ANC Western Region, declines to discuss the Sassounian case, or even confirm whether it came up in the endorsement interview.

"I'm not aware of what you're referring to," Bairamian says. "Our endorsement process is not something I'm going to comment on."

The candidates say that the ANC representatives made it clear the case was very important to the group. The ANC has yet to announce its endorsement in the race, and has not said whether it will make a selection before Tuesday's primary vote. The other candidates on the ballot -- Danette Meyers, Bobby Grace, and John Breault -- were not invited.

Sassounian admitted guilt and renounced terrorism and political assassinations as part of an agreement with the district attorney's office in 2002. Under that deal, Sassounian's sentence was converted from life without parole to 25 years to life, with the possibility of parole.

D.A. Steve Cooley has opposed parole at two previous hearings, in 2006 and 2010, and parole has been denied.

"This is a hate-based killing," Cooley tells the Weekly. "We think killing people in a premeditated way based on their ethnicity is one of the worst things around."

Armand Arabian, a retired California Supreme Court justice, spoke in favor of paroling Sassounian at the most recent hearing.

"I don't condone anybody shooting somebody else. He was a young person who was misguided. He's done a lot of years up there," Arabian says.

Arabian is supporting Trutanich, but says he has never spoken about the case with him. Mark Geragos, who has long served as Sassounian's attorney, is also backing Trutanich.

"No one can tell the D.A. what position to take in advance," Arabian says. "I wouldn't make this an issue, and I don't think it should be."

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Comments

Decent_American
Another reason NOT to support Carman LIE-tanich. Based on his history of lies, I'm positive he met with the Armos and secretly agreed to support parole for this filthy killer if he gets elected.

anonymous
I'm sick and tired of the Armenian community and their 19th century genocide. We don't care & don't foist your views on public officials who have to be fair to the rest of the constituents.


Steven Thadeus
hey anonymous, you may be sick, you may be tired of us. but we will never be silenced. we swear this to be true. the year could be 3012, and i will guarantee you that the truth will always rise above the hatred and the denial. my ancestors will not have died in vain. sorry for the traffic, on april 24th, and how it impedes on your commute; but if you felt what we felt you'd give up everything you claim to hold close to your heart to have one chance to have the world hear you out and know the stories you grandparents told you are real. the tears are real. the displacement is real. 100 years is not that long ago. if you knew the pain and how it ripples throughout the generations and the decades, you'd know this to be true. maybe one day you'll be open minded, and make a friend with a fellow armenian-american. maybe then you'll get a glimpse of the truth.

as for the comparison that yuval makes above; it's unfounded and an inaccurate comparison. the turkish diplomat was a device for genocide denial and was also directly responsible for espousing the denial and the continued mistreatment for the remaining armenians throughout turkish lands, for the desecration of thousand year old armenian churches; for all that did he deserve to die? i, personally do not think so. that should have been up to a judge or a jury to decide. unfortunately, as they say, in many cases justice is nothing not the only right in this world. especially in this case, with the armenian genocide being denied and questioned, where it is not blind.

hampig has done his time, and was very young, (hardly an adult) and there are serial rapists and killers who have done much less time than he has. he has been remorseful and a model in terms of good behavior and has done nothing but cooperate with authorities.


Beefcow
Bottom line: Hampig murdered someone in cold blood for no good reason. He deserves life like any other cold blooded murderer. Adult? Did his time? Tell that to the 14 yr old gangster doing LWOP.Cool name though: Ham-Pig.

Paul Steven
yeah...you must be really tired of Jews talking about how their families where baked in ovens. Must be rough to live your life.

getalife
And you must be real tired of hearing Palestinians complain about human rights violation by the Israelis.

It Wasnt Me!!!
Well the funny thing is if there were a Armenian genocide, what the hell did the USA have to do with it??? NOTHING!!! Take your bitching and moaning to the countries that were actually involved! This is all a ploy for reparation bucks from the Turks anyway. And take a bath once in a while for God's sake, ya stink!

Cows_are_stupid
That nickname perfectly suits you. A "Beefcow" with a brain of a cow. The only thing which really stinks is your mouth which spews out hatred and BS and who the hell you think you are to tell American citizens of Armenian origin to take their case somewhere else, Mr. BeefCOW

Yuval Kremer
They're backing Trutanich b/c he's soft on "VIP Crime"...just like he didn't go after party girl and frequent car crasher Amanda Bynes recently...expect A LOT of Celebs and Rich people to literally get away with Murder if and when Nuch Trutanich becomes DA...he's a Special Interest City Attorney and he'll be a Special Interest County DA. White Collar Criminals Rejoice! Carmen The Clown's Acomin' into office and the author of this article and other pro-scumbag politician pieces will be his Official PR Spokeshole !

Gotta love how Gene belittles a Terrorist's Murder of a Consul General: "In 1982, Sassounian and an accomplice assassinated the Turkish consul general, in an act of revenge for the Armenian genocide."

So, tell us, Gene: When did the Armenian Genocide take place? Wikipedia says 1915-1923...so, what was this victim's misdeed besides being a Spokeshole for Lying Politicians? Do you see the error of your ways, Gene? How can the Murder be an "act of revenge for the Armenian genocide", when the victim took no part in it and likely wasn't alive at the time of its occurence? Does that mean that terrorists can kill you and me for being Americans in revenge for Obama's ILLEGAL LIBYAN WAR 4 OIL $$$, even though we had nothing to do with it, and that would be A-OK by you? That's actually not a good example, since that occurred during our adulthood, we are not spokespeople for its perpetrators (actually, a few LA Weekly writers seem to be Obama Administration spokesholes), and the perpretrator (Obama) may yet be tried for War Crimes and Impeached...

Sounds like they cut a deal with Nuch, who apparently has a soft spot for Cold-Blooded Murderers Who Will KILL AGAIN After Nuch Releases Them.

Don't Nuke Our Justice System...Vote for Jackie Lacey !

laweekly.com
Fri., Jun. 1 2012.

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3315) Hampig Sassounian: An Archetypal Example of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism

By Maxime Gauin
JTW Columnist
6 September 2011



The congress of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation of 1972, organized in Vienna, Austria, decided the return to terrorist methods and the creation of a terrorist branch, the so-called “Justice Commandos Against Armenian Terrorism,” later renamed the “Armenian Revolutionary Army.” Among the main targets of the JCAG/ARA were Turkish diplomats, with a preference for ambassadors and consul generals. Initially, the assassinations were carried out with exceptional professionalism, as if the JCAG/ARA were actively assisted by a secret service of a state, for instance the Greek KYP [Minassian 2002, pp. 22-23, 28-29, 32-34 and 44-45]. After 1979, the terrorists were more frequently amateurs, and thus arrested in several cases. . .

On January 28, 1982, Kemal Arikan, the Turkish consul general in Los Angeles, was assassinated by the JCAG. One of the two perpetrators, Hampig “Harry” Sassounian was arrested. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, in first-instance (1984) and appeal (1986), for assassination motivated by the nationality of the victim, on the basis of several testimonies, a ballistic analysis, a gunshot residue test, and other material evidence [verdict 1986]. Since the day of his arrest, Hampig Sassounian received total, unconditional support from the ARF, all over North America, and beyond, in France especially, but also in Canada, Greece, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and even in some countries where there are only small Armenian communities, like Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the UK. Thanks to the developed structure of the ARF, these campaigns were more organized, professional, and systematic than the support to GourgenYanikian, a former volunteer of Russian army during WWI, who relaunched in practice Armenian terrorism by the assassination of Kemal Arikan’s predecessor, Mehmet Baydar, and of the vice-consul Bahadir Demir (January 27, 1973). Support Committees for Hampig Sassounian were created in various cities of the U.S., of course in California, but also far beyond this state, for example in Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts.

The Sassounian family exemplifies to an extreme level the culture of hatred advocated by the ARF. Hampig Sassounian’s brother, Harut, had been sentenced in 1980 to six years in jail for an attempt of assassination by arson (Molotov cocktail) against the same Turkish diplomat. The first reaction of their father, after Kemal Ar?kan’s assassination, was: “I am glad that a Turk was killed.”

The defense of Hampig Sassounian, led by the Dashnak lawyer Paul Geragos (born Geragossian), assumed a denial of all guilty evidence as well as a diversionary strategy, speaking largely of the “Armenian genocide” allegation. It was not very different from the defense strategy of most of the other Armenian terrorists, for example the Dashnak terrorist Max Hrair Kilndjian, judged in Aix-en-Provence in 1982 for the attempt of murder against the Turkish ambassador in Berne; Mardiros Jamgotchian (ASALA), the assassin of Mehmet S. Yergüz, secretary of the Turkish consulate in Geneva, in 1981; Abraham Thomassian, judged in 1983 for the bombing of the Turkish Airlines office in Paris; and the four ASALA terrorists judged in Parisin 1984 for the attack on the Turkish consulate general. However, Mardiros Jamgotchian escaped life imprisonment (he received 15 years, and served barely 10 years) and the other obtained remarkably light sentences.

The “Ottawa three” were sentenced to life by a Canadian justice for the attack on the Turkish embassy in Ottawa, the murder of the security agent Claude Brunelle, and the attempted murder of the ambassador; but they eventually changed their defense strategy to a lower profile and were released after 25 years, i.e. the minimal time. The Dashnak Levon Demirian was the most careful of the arrested Armenian terrorists, choosing non-Armenian lawyers who focused on the case itself, and obtained that their client be acquitted of murder charges in appeal. Mr. Demirian was indeed indicted for a bombing which killed only the perpetrator; his counsel argued successfully that the defendant did not want to kill his accomplice. Mr. Demirian left his jail after the minimum of ten years. The case of the perpetrators of the Orly attack are special, showing both the effectiveness of a coherent, strong Turkish response, and the dangers of politicizing history through senseless bills in Parliament [Gauin 2011].

Only Gourgen Yanikian persevered in being aggressively proud of his crime, despite having been sentenced to life; as a result, he left prison only to decease at home, about three weeks following his release. So, Hampig Sassounian, the single Armenian terrorist of the 1970s and 1980s still in jail, is also the single example of a failing, and anyway ongoing defense strategy. Mr. Sassounian is now 48 years old, and could not, unlike Gourgen Yanikian, request a governor’s pardon for medical reasons.

Despite the support for Hampig Sassounian having come from—and still coming—far beyond California, it would be not an exaggeration to speak of a Californian specificity: the state concentrates half of the Armenian community in the U.S., a density which gives it maximum electoral influence, and as a result, a minimum of concern for respectability. This specificity leads to an identification of Hampig Sassounian as the ARF itself, and of the ARF as Hampig Sassounian. Mr. Sassounian tattooed on himself the emblem of his party, and since 1982, his party devotes to him its most expensive, expansive, and obsessive campaign of support to a terrorist.More than $250,000 was collected in 1982, and more than $70,000 in 2002 [Gunter 2011, p. 69; Asbarez 2002]. In the issue of November/December 2000, p. 9, Haytoug, the official publication of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF, young Dashnaks) said: “The likes of Hampig Sassounian […] for us are not terrorists, are not killers, they are martyrs, and heroes, the souls of a forgotten past.”

The defense of Hampig Sassounian is now led by Mark Geragos, the son of his first lawyer Paul Geragos, and also one of the people in charge of the very questionable court cases filed by Armenians against German insurance companies or, more recently, against the American Federal Government itself. Paul Geragos dared to state, during a Dashnak meeting of February 2002: “The genocide continues,” referring to the refusal of a U.S. justice to release Hampig Sassounian [Asbarez 2002].

This support or the terrorist Sassounian should not be regarded as only nostalgia without practical consequences. Going to Los Angeles to argue against Hampig Sassounian’s release in 2010, David Saltzman, the lawyer of the Turkish embassy in Washington and of the main Turkish American associations, had to come to the parole board in an armored car, escorted by two police cars. Actually, the file presented by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) demonstrated, by firsthand evidence, that not only does the ARF still present Hampig Sassounian as a hero and an example, but also trains—in the 2000s—some of its junior members with the handling of firearms [ATAA 2010]. Similarly, the file presented by the ATAA for the Mourad Topalian trial demonstrated that the use of physical violence against Turkish and related targets remained ordinary for at least some Armenian nationalists of California until 2000 [ATAA 2000].

Armenian terrorism against Azerbaijan (1989-1994), the support for Armenia’s aggression against its neighbor, and the Armenian support for the PKK, especially the sending of the ARF’s specialists in explosives to the PKK’s training camps in 1985-1986, were a kind of substitution for the previous anti-Turkish terrorism; other nationalist Armenians were in a similar situation [Gunter 2011, pp. 63-64, 68, 80-83 and 92-93; Minassian 2002, pp. 74, 108-109, 116, 136-223, and 194].

For the moment, there is no indication that the ARF World Bureau seriously considers a reactivation of the JCAG/ARA. September 11, the following attacks of al-Qaida, or more recently, the fusillade by the far-right Norwegian terrorist Andreis Breivik—a staunch Armenophile, Greekophile, and Turkophobe—gave the darkest, or rather the truest, image of terrorism. On the other hand, one of the posters proudly displayed—including on the Web—during the ARF’s demonstration against the Turkish-Armenian protocols in Beirut (2009), in English: “If you open the border, you will see bombs.” Apparently, nobody in the ARF’s branches in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere protested against such a threat. The accumulation of disappointments (failure of the recognition of the “genocide” claims in the U.S. and of the censorship bill in France, dismantlement of the PKK cells in France, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands, Roj TV trial in Denmark) can also lead to use again the most extreme and traditional methods. Vicken Hovsepian, supreme representative of the ARF in the U.S. and member of the World Bureau, could hardly be an unconditional opponent to any return to terrorism: he was himself sentenced to six years in prison in 1984, for an attempted bombing.

Regardless, the most credible danger is the use of terrorism by isolated people: factions of the youth Dashnak organizations and/or groups nostalgic for the ASALA. In addition to the concerns of LA police for Mr. Saltzman’s safety, it’s possible to cite the successful death threats of the ASALA’s veterans association against Armen Gakavian in 2008-2009, the unsuccessful death threat against the member of U.S. Congressman Stephen Cohen in 2008, and the hurling of Molotov cocktails by Armenian demonstrators at the Turkish embassy in Moscow in April 2007.

The next parole hearing of Hampig Sassounian will take place in 2013. A release would be a bad signal for the supporters of the Armenian terrorism, especially since it would happen two years before 2015.

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Works Cited:
*Asbarez 2002: more-than-70-000-raised-for-hampig-sassounian-defense-effort
*ATAA 2000: http://www.ataa.org/
*ATAA 2010: ATAA_Statement_in_Opposition_of_Parole.pdf
Supporting_Documents_Hampig_Sassounian.pdf
*Gauin 2011: http://www.turkishweekly.net/
*Minassian 2002: Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 2002.
*Gunter 2011: Michael M. Gunter, Armenian History and the Question of Genocide, New York-London, Palgrave MacMillan, 2011.
*Verdict 1986: http://law.justia.com/

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Source: http://www.turkishweekly.net

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3251) Remembering The Orly Attack

19 April 2011
Updated: 6 May 2011

By Maxime Gauin*

ABSTRACT

The bombing of the Orly airport, on July 15, 1983, one the two most bloody attacks by Armenian terrorists in the 1970’s and 1980’s, is not an accident or a crime whose responsibility could be attributed only to a tiny group of extremists. It is rather a logical consequence of a decade of violence. The attack did not stop the Armenian terrorism after July 1983; and the sincerity of “critiques” pronounced by the main Armenian diaspora’s associations is at least questionable. If the trial of 1985 was a great victory against the terrorism, the “recognition” of the “Armenian genocide” claims in the French Parliament, against the dispositions of the French Constitution, was a reward to terrorism, and a decisive help to the release of the main perpetrator of the Orly bombing.

KEYWORDS

ARF, ASALA, Armenian terrorism, Türkkaya Ataöv, criminal law, Hagop Hagopian, Hunchak, JCAG, Jean Loyrette, François Mitterrand, Orly, PKK, Ramkavar, Mümtaz Soysal, Jean-Marc Ara Toranian, Jacques Vergès . .

On July 15, 1983, was perpetrated the worst terrorist attack which happened in France since the end of World War II, and the worst perpetrated in peace time. A bomb placed by the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) in Orly airport (one of the two main airports of Parisian agglomeration) killed eight tourists (four French, two Turks, one American, one Swedish), wounded 90, including around 60 seriously, including several who remained infirm for life. As confessed Waroujan Garbidjian (Karapetian), chief of ASALA in France, sentenced to life for the attack, the goal was to destroy a plane of Turkish Airlines (and so to kill all his passengers and staff); it is only by accident that the explosion happened in the airport. “Orly” remained the symbol of bloody terrorism against Turkey and related targets.

Arrested on July 20, 1983 and sentenced to life on March 3, 1985, Mr. Garbidjian was released in April 2001. The purpose of this paper, published on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this release, is to clarify the context and the consequences of this terrorist attack; especially, to rectify the various and frequent errors about this crime.

The Road to the Bombing

ASALA was created in 1971 within the Lebanese branch of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), and also with the participation of some members of Hunchak, another Armenian nationalist party.[1] The ARF did lose quickly the control of the group, which taken over by two Palestinian terrorist leaders: George Habbash (a former admirer of Nazism who turned to far left in the 1960’s) and Waddi Haddad (who became a KGB agent in 1971, precisely[2]). As a result, the ARF created in December 1972 her proper terrorist group, the so-called “Justice Commandos against Armenian Genocide” (JCAG), later named Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA); to prevent any dissidence, the JCAG/ARA were directly subordinated to the World leadership of ARF.[3]

The Armenian terrorism was re-launched in practice by the double murder of Turkish general consul Mehmet Baydar and his deputy Bahadır Demir, perpetrated by Gourgen Yanikian (ASALA’s reference) on January 27, 1973, in Santa Barbara.[4] ASALA started officially its attacks in January 1975 (but likely as early as 1973, under the name of “Yanikian Commandos”); the JCAG began on October 22, 1975, by the assassination of Daniş Tunalıgil, Turkish ambassador in Vienna.[5]

“France after Turkey, was the country who suffered the most of the Armenian terrorism: 18 peoples were killed on French soil from 1975 to 1983, namely six Turkish diplomats and staff members (including the Turkish ambassador İsmail Erez and his driver)[6], two Turks in the consulate of Lyon, on August 5, 1980, one French secretary in bombing Marmara agency (see below), eight persons in Orly attack, one in the bombing of an exposition hall in Marseille, on October 1st, 1983.[7]”

The existence of an important Armenian community in France is not the single reason of this exceptionally bloody situation. After 1979-1980 and the rising of ASALA, there was a contest between the political branch of this group one side, and the ARF on the other side, for the control of the Armenian community in France. The strong popularity of terrorism, especially among the most active Armenians, led ASALA to increase, again and again, the number and the violence of terrorist attacks, especially in France. Because the arrest of Dashnak terrorist Max Hraïr Kilndjian in 1980, and the victory of Socialists in national elections of 1981, ARF preferred to stop the attacks in France — which did not mean to stop the terrorism in other countries, as we will see in the next part on this article.

Anyway, in addition to the competition between JCAG/ARA and ASALA, the questionable conduct of the trials of two Armenian terrorists were, in practice, encouragements to continue and increase the violence. Indicted for attempt of murder against the Turkish ambassador in Switzerland, the Dashnak Max Hraïr Kilndjian was sentenced as only as accomplice, to two years of jail, by the tribunal of Aix-en-Provence. The witnesses of the attack were threatened to death, so one dared to go Aix-en-Provence. The lawyers of Mr. Kilndjian argued mostly on “genocide” allegations, and were helped by several witnesses, including the main self-proclaimed historians who diffused the “Armenian genocide” allegation in France: Jean-Marie Carzou (Zouloumian), Gérard Chaliand (Chalian) and Yves Ternon. The lawyer of Turkish ambassador received no contra-genocide argument, and so, focused on the case itself and on the danger of terrorism.[8] A huge Dashnak crowd attended to the trial, to intimidate the jury and the magistrates. The line of ARF was clearly expressed since the very beginning: “Guilty or not, we support Max Kilndjian”.[9] It is not needed to say that Mr. Kinldjian’s slight sentence was welcomed with a big enthusiasm by the Dashnaks. Every issue of Haïastan, the monthly of Young Dashnaks in France, is full of articles vehemently supporting Mr. Kilndjian, from 1980 to 1982. But at least the ARF considered that the necessary complementary counterpart of such an arrogant and aggressive attitude was to end the terrorist attacks in France.

However, ASALA was of a different opinion. To obtain the release of its terrorists, ASALA used extensively the intimidation and blackmail by bombings and threats of bombings. But interestingly, the same staff of lawyers defended ASALA and JCAG terrorists in France and Switzerland, except for the Orly attack, and this exception is mainly due to the decision of ASALA itself. The “Comité de soutien aux prisonniers politiques arméniens” (CSPPA, “Support Committee to Armenian Political Prisonners”), in charge of paying the lawyers’s costs, was leaded by Jean-Marc “Ara” Toranian, who was also the chairman of the Mouvement national arménien (MNA), a group which was the political branch of ASALA until 1983.[10] The CSPPA supported both ASALA and JCAG indicted terrorists.

Tried for the bombing of a Parisian office of Turkish Airlines, in January 1983, the ASALA terrorist Abraham Thomassian was sentenced, on July 7 of the same year, to only 30 months of jail. Monte Melkonian revealed later that Hagop Hagopian gave inadvertently to Mr. Thomassian offensive grenades, instead of defensive, i.e. much less dangerous explosives, only by ignorance; that is why nobody was killed.[11] However, the goal was actually, like in Orly, to kill maximum number of persons. By comparison, another ASALA terrorist, Zaven Bedros, was sentenced on July 23, 1983, by a London’s tribunal, to eight years of prison for illegal storing of weapons and explosives and conspiracy to take the Turkish ambassador hostage.[12]

On February 28, 1983, ASALA bombed an office of the travel agency Marmara, which is a French company, killing one French secretary and wounding four other French citizens. Hay Baykar, the newspaper edited by Mr. Toranian, slammed only those who called this act “terrorist” and “criminal”, and considered the bombing as completely excusable; Hay Baykar insinuated even that those condemned these acts were motivated by an anti-Armenian “racism”.[13] This attack was not the first successful blind bombing by ASALA. As early as March 10, 1980, a bomb killed two persons and wounded at least twelve others, mostly Italians, at the Turkish Airlines office of Rome.[14] No one perpetrator was arrested; it was the same for all the other attacks of the Armenian terrorists in Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

On August 7, 1982, a suicide-attack of ASALA at the Ankara airport killed nine tourists (including one German and one American) and wounded 71 others (including one American).[15] Hay Baykar presented warm congratulations to ASALA for this carnage.[16] One month before the Orly attack, ASALA committed a suicide attack in Istanbul’s bazaar, killing two persons (ASALA claimed twenty-five) and wounded twenty-three.[17] One more time, Hay Baykar praised the crime: “Meguerditch Madarian fell as martyr in the flower of his youth, an image of Armenian youth which despair and cynicism about the success of our cause have led the most awful, the most insane sacrifice — Madarian, dead on the enemy’s soil.”[18] Similarly, in its issue of November 24, 1982, Hay Baykar published an article entitled “Notre lutte et l’opinion publique” (“Our Struggle and Public Opinion”), recommending to Armenian terrorists to commit criminal acts well beyond the assassination of only Turkish diplomats, and to not take too much care of the reactions of the public opinion. The perpetrators of Orly bombing did nothing but to follow these recommendations. The crime of Orly was the absolutely logical consequence of precedent bombings, of encouraging comments made by ASALA’s political branch, and of the lack of efficient repression against terrorist acts, especially in France.

But the Orly attack provoked the quick dismantlement of ASALA in France; Yves Bonnet, head of the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST, French counter-terrorist and counter-intelligence police) received the green light from the government for an operation which he hoped to organize since his nomination, in 1982: the arrest of the whole ASALA network in France, by a coordinated operation of all the national police forces.

The Reactions of the Main Armenian Diaspora’s Associations: “Critiques” Contradicted by Facts

According to the French association “SOS-attentats”, the official condemnation of the Orly bombing by the French Armenian associations was published only “more than one year” after the event.[19] Anyway, there are other reasons to doubt of the sincerity of the “condemnation” of this attack.

The medal of hypocrisy has surely to be awarded to the MNA of Mr. Toranian, not only because MNA, as we saw, supported fully the strategy of ASALA until the Orly attack. Indeed, Hay Baykar, despite his so-called “critique” of Orly attack, claimed impunity for the perpetrators, and slammed the verdict (life imprisonment for Varoujan Garbidjian, 15 years of jail for Soner Nayir, 10 years for Ohannes Semerci): “the rise of anti-Armenian repression, which we denounce tireless since months, culminated this Sunday March 3, 3 hours a.m. […] These three condemnations are a new blow to the Armenian cause.”[20] Hay Baykar supported also unconditionally Soner Nayir[21], who designed the firing circuits of Orly’s bomb;[22] one member of MNA was sentenced to jail for concealment of criminal (i.e. Soner Nayir); Mr. Toranian himself was sentenced to four months of suspended jail, but relaxed by the appeal court: he gave money to a friend, who used this money to help Soner Nayir; the first-instance court decided that Mr. Toranian could not ignore completely the destination of his money, the appeal court gave him the benefit of doubt.

Similarly, Mr. Toranian stated in an interview to Le Nouvel Observateur, in 1986, that Hagop Hagopian, the chief of ASALA, was a “fascist” and an “anti-Semite”[23], failing to explain why his newspaper and his association supported this “fascist” during several years — including at the time (1980) when ASALA bombed the office of El Al in Rome airport, and stated that the “Zionist Jews” are among the main enemies of the Armenians.[24] Mr. Toranian failed also to say why, as editor-in-chief of Hay Baykar, he allowed the publication of several articles which called the Israeli government and the whole Israel’s Jewish population “terrorists” and “Nazis”[25], a comparison which is a classical topic of the Arab and Iranian anti-Semitism.[26]

Anyway, the so-called “critique” of Orly attack did not mean the end of appeals to terrorism by MNA. Quite the contrary, the group became in practice to the dissident terrorists of ASALA-Revolutionary Movement what it was to ASALA prior to Orly attack. Only the arrests of its members by the French police prevented ASALA-RM to commit crimes on French soil.[27] During the trial of Monte Melkonian, chief of ASALA-RM, for possession of fake passport, illegal storing of weapons and conspiracy, Mr. Toranian himself testified for the terrorist, and justified his crimes.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation was roughly as self-contradictory in “condemning” the Orly attack. It is a legend that the Dashnak terrorists of JCAG/ARA refrained to use bombs in public and non-diplomatic locations; quite the contrary, JCAG carried out the first bombings of this kind, on May 29, 1977, in Yeşilköy (today Atatürk) airport and Sirkeci railroad station of Istanbul (5 deaths, 64 wounded).[28] In October 1982, the FBI arrested five Dashnak terrorists who wanted to blow the whole building where the Turkish Honorary Consulate of Philadelphia is located. According to FBI estimates, approved by the appeal court, the bomb “would at least 100 casualties. A daytime explosion could inflict as many as 2,000 to 3,000 casualties.”[29] Speaking on behalf the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA, political branch of ARF), local representative Leon Kirakosian “condemned this effort by the FBI and local police agencies to do Turkish dirty work against the Armenian people.”[30] The chief of the group, Vicken Hovsepian, sentenced to six years of prison (the prosecutor asked 25 years)[31] is currently a member of ARF’s World Bureau and the supreme representative of ARF in USA. Before 1983, the ARF saw no necessity to “condemn” any act of ASALA; in Autumn 1982, during a series of ARF’s meetings in France, the participants rejected explicitly the idea to “make the trial of ASALA”; the single shortcoming of ASALA, according to them, was to refuse an united front with ARF.[32]

The Orly attack did not dissuade the ARF to continue terrorism, including attempts of bombing in public places. During the year 1984, ARA assassinated two Turkish diplomats[33]; two ARA’s terrorists were killed by their proper bomb, accidentally, in the car park of Topkapı’s palace, in Istanbul[34] — a touristic place where non-Turkish tourists could have been very likely victims if the bombing was successful. On March 12, 1985, ARA carried out its most organized attack, against the Turkish embassy in Ottawa; it failed only because the sacrifice of the guardian Claude Brunelle and the important number of Pinkerton agents who protected the embassy. The cold-blood murder of a non-Turkish did not prevent ARF, of course, to present her three criminals (sentence to life) as “heroes”.[35]

The meetings organized by ARF in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, in the end of 1985, about “Ten years of armed struggle” showed that the activists of the ARF wanted the continuation of terrorism, and not at all any stop.[36] In the end of 1986, The Armenian Weekly, official publication of ARF in Boston (Massachusetts), published an article asserting that the Armenians can “only be excited by these acts of violence, as ‘acts of creation’ since the destruction of any representative of the Oppressor, Turkey, means the assertion of Armenian dignity”.[37] According to the account made by Gaïdz Minassian of the ARF’s congresses which decided to suspend for one year (1985) then sine die (1986) the activities of ARA, the arguments used by the partisans of suspension — chiefly Hracht Dasnabedian (1928-2001) — did not mention the Orly attack, but above all practical reasons: the terrorism was getting increasingly expensive, the effectiveness of the polices in the countries where Dashnak terrorist acts are perpetrated and the pressure of various governments were increasing also. Mr. Minassian gives also this interesting precision: the ARF’s specialists in explosives were sent, in 1985-1986, to the camps of PKK[38], one of the most violent terrorist groups in the world.[39]

The Hunchak party was not much convincing in “condemning” the Orly attack. An official of this political organization said in Spring 1982, about ASALA’s attacks that “actually our party is not against these operations; on the contrary, we support them.”[40] This statement, which happened after the first blind and murdering bombing by ASALA, takes a special sense, because two of the four ASALA terrorists who attacked the Turkish Consulate in Paris were ex-members of the Hunchak party.[41]

Unlike the ARF, the Ramkavar did not have a terrorist branch, and unlike Hunchak, there was no explicit statements in favor of terrorism; but individuals and local groups were totally allowed to support terrorists by words and by giving money to pay lawyers’ costs; and as far as 2000, when the main columnist of Ramkavar in USA, Moorad Mooradian (1935-2009), recalled the Armenian terrorism, he justified the assassinations of Turkish diplomats and said absolutely nothing, not a single word of critique, on Orly attack, or any other bombing in public places.[42] Speaking few after the Orly attack, Larry Cretan, former director of the Ramkavar-dominated Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), said “I am disturbed by those kinds of acts because I feel they’re counterproductive,” — so not because they are criminal — and added he could “understand the motivations behind them.”[43]

The Armenian Reporter, an Armenian American daily independent of any political parties, was probably more sincere, because he started to criticize terrorism before the Orly attack; however, these critics should not be overestimated. Indeed, until 1982, The Armenian Reporter accepted to publish articles inciting to murder and terrorism, including some statements of ASALA.[44] The daily agreed to criticize any terrorist act committed after the carnage of Ankara airport, and this carnage itself, but maintained integrally his praising of the majority of terrorist acts committed before the Summer 1982. Especially, in its issue of March 8, 1984, The Armenian Reporter published, in the first page, a necrology of Gourgen Yanikian, saying that Yanikian, in perpetrating his double murder, “opened [a] new era of political struggle” and “changed the course of Armenian history.”

The peak of support to terrorism by Armenian groups and individuals — Dashnaks and non-Dashnaks — in France happened after the Orly attack, in January-February 1984, i.e. around the trial of the four ASALA terrorists who attacked the Turkish Consulate in Paris on September 24, 1981, killed one guard, Cemal Özen, and seriously wounding the consul, Kaya İnal: a crowd of nationalist Armenians attended to the trial to intimidate the jury, the prosecutor and the plaintiffs’ representatives; the famous singer Charles Aznavour and the film maker Henri Verneuil (Achod Malakian) sent written statements of support, together with other Armenian personalities; the trio Jean-Marie Carzou (Zouloumian), Gérard Chaliand (Chalian) and Yves Ternon testified one more time; the slight verdict (seven years of jail for every terrorists) was slammed as too severe by Armenian newspapers.[45] The trial of Hampig Sassounian, in the beginning of 1984, marked also, in USA, the peak of support from ARF, its activists and sympathizers, for terrorism.[46] And as far as February 1985, one year and a half after the Orly attack and few before the trial, the Armenian American journalist George Mason wrote, with regret: “There are many Armenian Americans in California who feel great sympathy for the Armenian terrorists. I have talked to numerous peaceful, fair and thoughtful men who have expressed support to terrorism.”[47]

The almost disappearance of Armenian terrorism in USA after 1982 (the main exception being the attempt of assassination against Bonnie Joy Kaslan, in Spring 1985[48]) has nothing to do with the Orly attack and everything with the efficient operations of FBI following the assassination of Honorary Consul in Boston Orhan Gündüz[49] and the strong protests of Ankara to Washington. As we saw before, the end of the Armenian terrorism in France is due to similar causes. And from 1988 to 1994, a second campaign of Armenian terror targeted Azerbaidjan, in the context of Armenian-Azeri conflict.[50]

The Trial: The Success of Truth, Courage and Coherence

The political context of the Armenian issue and the approach to terrorism in France improved quickly after the trial of January 1984 and the vehement Turkish protestations. François Mitterrand realized his serious error to call the fate of Ottoman Armenians as “genocide” during a speech pronounced in the beginning of 1984, for electoral reasons. In July 1984, when he changed largely his government, almost all the pro-Armenian ministers lost their position, or changed their affectations. As a result, there was a deal between François Mitterrand, the Turkish Ambassador Adnan Bulak, and Jean Loyrette, principal of Gide-Loyrette-Nouel firm law (actually the second best French firm law, and now currently the first) [51] and Counsel of French ministry of Foreign affairs. For the precedent trials (Max Kilndjian 1982, Abraham Thomassian 1983, the attackers of the Turkish consulate 1984), the Turkish diplomacy paid famous lawyers, but gave no (1982, 1983) or too few (1984) arguments about the tragedy of World War I. Mr. Loyrette is not only one of the best French lawyers of the XXth century, but he has also a Ph.D. in contemporary history, obtained from Oxford University.

In December 1984 and January 1985, during two separate trials of terrorists, where the Turkish side was represented by Mr. Loyrette and his firm, the change of situation showed itself. Charged for illegal storing of explosives, Avétis Catanessian was sentenced to four years of jail (more than Mr. Thomassian, who was charged for bombing, in 1983). Other terrorists were sentenced to two or three years of jail, for the same charge, or for concealment of criminal.

For the trial of Orly attack (February-March 1985), the DST agreed with the Turkish Embassy to prevent the nationalist Armenians to attend the trial and to intimidate the tribunal. Only Turks and French were allowed to attend in the room. An important protection device was deployed. There was nothing like the hysterical crowd of Kilndjian trial, or the very mixed attendance of trials which happened in December 1984 and in January 1985.

The plaintiffs had three lawyers: Gilles de Poix and Christian de Thezillat, associates of Jean Loyrette, argued on the guilt of the three indicted persons; Jean Loyrette himself argued on the Armenian terrorism and against the “Armenian genocide” allegation. To reinforce this argumentation, four Turkish scholars — Sina Akşin, Türkkaya Ataöv, Hasan Köni and Mümtaz Soysal — testified against the “genocide” allegations; Avedis Simon Hacinliyian, senior lecturer at the Bosphorus University, testified against the allegation of “persecution” of Armenians in Turkey.[52]

Jean-Marie Carzou, Gérard Chaliand and Yves Ternon, accustomed to tribunal rooms since 1981, did not dare to participate at the trial as witnesses of defense, likely because the enormity of the crime, possibly also because there were afraid of the cross-examination by Jean Loyrette. But their books were used, among others, by the lawyers of defense. There was a real controversy, and the plaintiffs’ side was largely winner.

However, on a purely legal level, the defense had initially some advantages. Indeed, in 1985 (it changed as early as 1986), the French law did not authorize to restrict the release, during the trial, of the methods of investigation used against terrorists; all the conditions of the research of evidences had to be mentioned during the trial. So, the DST refrained from exposing all the material in the legal file, being afraid that other terrorists, including members of ASALA, could use such information to prepare future attacks with more safety. As a result, even the principal perpetrator of attack, Waroujan Garbidjian, was sentenced as an accomplice, not as an assassin.[53]

So, if Mr. Garbidjian was sentenced to life, it was not only because the majority of the victims killed were non-Turks, but also because the plaintiffs were able to challenge efficiently the “genocide” claims.

Because the bitterness of Hagop Hagopian, chief of ASALA, against his former comrade Jean-Marc “Ara” Toranian, the three terrorists charged for the Orly attack refused the help of the CSPPA, and chose as main Counsel Jacques Vergès — in addition to Christian Bourguet, Raffi Pechdimaldjian and Michel Zavrian. Mr. Vergès was the lawyer of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian terrorists since 1960’s, and defended also the war criminal Klaus Barbie, so this choice was in fact an handicap more than an advisable decision.

The single error of the Turkish side during the period mid-1984-1986 was to sue Mr. Toranian only for concealment of criminal, and not for glorification of terrorism and outrage to magistrates. Many articles of his newspaper Hay Baykar offered occasions for such court cases.

The “Recognition” of the so-called “Genocide”, or the Reward to Terrorism

Soner Nayir, sentenced to 15 years, served more than 11 years in jail, i.e. roughly three quarters of his sentence;[54] almost no convict serves more than the three quarters in France, since the end of XIXth century. Similarly, ASALA-RM’s leader Monte Melkonian, sentenced to six years, including two suspended, served more than three years (November 1985-January 1989).[55] So, it is not possible to say that, from the end of 1984 to the middle of 1990’s, the Armenian terrorists convicted by French justice benefited of slight enforcement of sentences.

But the “recognition” of “Armenian genocide” claims by the French Parliament (1998-2001), which, incidentally, violated the Constitution[56], permitted an exceptionally clement treatment for Mr. Garbidjian. His new lawyers argued of the “recognition” to obtain, with success in 2001, his liberation by the tribunal d’application des peines (parole board)[57], despite the absence of regrets and excuses by the terrorist.[58] Patrick Arapian, the main counsel of Armenian Revolutionary Federation in France — and a former associate of Jacques Vergès — played a capital role in this release.[59] If an evidence of ARF’s real opinion about Orly case was still needed, this fact would furnish it.

Anyway, Waroujan Garbidjian was released after less than 18 years in prison. A comparison with similar cases of 1980’s is self-explanatory. The far left terrorists of Action directe sentenced to life for murder (one or two murders for every) served more than twenty years, excepted Joëlle Aubron (18 years), released for serious health reasons; for instance 21 years for Nathalie Ménigon, 23 years for Maxime Frérot, 24 years for Georges Cipriani, 26 years for Régis Schleicher. The far right terrorist Michel Lajoye, sentenced to life for a bombing which did not kill or wound anybody (despite the intent of this criminal) served twenty years. The Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, sentenced for his participation to the murder of two diplomats (one American and one Israeli) is in jail since 1984, with very few hopes of release. The Islamist Tunisian terrorist Fouad Ali Saleh, sentenced to life for several bloody attacks in Paris, is in jail since 1987.

Even more remarkable is the silence in France and the reactions in Armenia. Except an article in the daily Libération, the release of this terrorist provoked very few reactions in main French medias, and even less in French political world. Waroujan Garbidjian, despite his Syrian citizenship, was kindly expelled to Armenia.[60] He was welcomed in Erevan by the actual Prime Minister, Antranik Markarian, and by the mayor of Armenia’s capital, Robert Nazarian, who pledged to provide him with employment and accommodation.[61] This attitude was by no means exceptional. Mardiros Jamgotchian, member of ASALA and assassin of Mehmet S. Yergüz, secretary of Turkish consulate in Geneva[62], was welcomed in Armenia the Armenian Benevolent Association Gtutiun — the very first NGO created in Armenia — after his release of a Swiss prison, in 1991.[63] The four attackers of Paris consulate immigrated in Armenia after the independence; and as far as 2010, the Armenian Ministry of Culture supported financially the publication of a book glorifying the attack, and presented to the press by its author, Grigor Janikyan, with two of the perpetrators.[64]

In France, the main Armenian associations threw definitely out their mask in 2003, when Mr. Toranian was elected as president of Coordination Council of France’s Armenian Association (CCAF). He spent four years in this presidency, and was reelected in 2010 as co-president, together with the Dashnak Mourad Papazian, who was the most strident supporter of JCAG/ARA in France during the 1980’s.[65] There is definitely no clear limit between the Armenian activism, in France and several other countries, and the Armenian terrorism. The Wall Street Journal called appropriately “ASALA’s Day” the approbation, in September 1984, of the resolution designating April 24 as “National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man”.[66] The “recognition” of “Armenian genocide” claims in France was another “ASALA’s Day”, by every aspects.

Conclusion: Crimes and Double Standards

In a letter to President Woodrow Wilson dated of March 23, 1920, colonel Charles Furlong an Army intelligence officer and U.S. Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, elaborated: “We hear much, both truth and gross exaggeration of Turkish massacres of Armenians, but little or nothing of the Armenian massacres of Turks. […] Our opportunity to gain the esteem and respect of the Muslim world […] will depend much on whether America hears Turkey's untrammeled voice and evidence which she has never succeeded in placing before the Court of Nations.”[67] In several telegrams to French War Office, especially on February 2, February 28 and March 5, 1919, General Hamelin, chief of French armies in the Near East in 1918-1919, warned that crimes perpetrated by Armenian soldiers were not less cruel than crimes perpetrated by Turks and Kurds, that these crimes will damage the image of France in the Muslim world, and that France will never be awarded by any gratitude of Armenian groups, who saw Hamelin’s country only as a source of money and a military force.[68]

These warnings have been neglected by these so numerous politicians who pretend write history for their own political purpose, and electoral interest. But, in addition to these double standards of war crimes, the Turks suffered of double standard on terrorism. No monument, plaque, nothing commemorates the Orly bombing, already largely forgotten. However, after the assassination of Hrant Dink, his name was given to two streets of Lyon and the main city of Lyon’s suburb, Villeurbanne, only to satisfy ultra-nationalist organizations which hated the deeds of Hrant Dink but now use his assassination for their political agenda.

The free speech in Turkey about Armenian issue is so far that Khatchig Mouradian, the editor-in-chief of the Dashnak Armenian Weekly — a newspaper which praised, as we saw, the Armenian terrorism, after to have praised the Armenian branch of Nazism[69] — was allowed to make a speech in Ankara about the so-called “reparations” which Turkey is supposed to have to pay[70] — without any legal basis. However, Turkey is still presented in EU and USA as restricting free speech on Armenian issue. And almost no protest came from the West in 2009, when the association of ASALA’s veterans silenced the Australian-Armenian scholar Armen Gakavian, who wanted to launch an apologies petition for Armenian terrorism of 1970’s and 1980’s, and for war crimes of Armenian soldiers and volunteers of Russian army during WWI.[71]

Finally, let’s notice that if the — mostly moderate — Muslims of Western countries are frequently criticized by xenophobes for their supposed lack of condemnation of terrorism — an unfair accusation for the majority, is it needed to say? —, almost no non-Turkish groups and individuals asks to the Armenians to condemn the terrorism. The ASALA terrorist Vazgen Sislian argued in 2010 that “Luckily, 99% of the Diaspora supported those actions and the mood in Soviet Armenia was also positive.”[72] Mr. Sislian’s figure is surely an exaggeration; but not even 1% of the Armenians, outside of Turkey, demonstrated by public statements that Mr. Sislian is wrong.


*Maxime Gauin is a visiting researcher at USAK.


[1] Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 28-29.

[2] Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB Battle for the Third World, New York: Basic Books, 2005, pp. 246-253.

[3] Gaïdz Minassian, op. cit., pp. 22-23, 28 and 32-34; Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62; Yves Ternon, La Cause arménienne, Paris: Le Seuil, 1983, pp. 218-221.

[4] Michael Bobelian, Children of Armenia, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009, pp. 141-163; Bilâl N. Şimşir, Şehit Diplomatlarımız (1973-1994), Ankara: Bilgi Yayinevi, 2000, tome I, pp. 80-117.

[5] ATAA, Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG Terrorist Hampig Sassounian, p. 23 http://www.ataa.org/reference/Supporting_Documents_Hampig_Sassounian.pdf ; Gaïdz Minassian, op. cit., p. 44; Michael M. Gunter, “Pursuing the Just Cause of their People”. A Study of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism, Westport-New York-London: Greenwood Press, 1986, pp. 33 and 68.

[6] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., pp. 68-69 ; Gaïdz Minassian, ibid. ; Bilâl N. Şimşir, op. cit., pp. 156-190, 300-312, 378-405 and 424-458.

[7] http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198310010001

[8] See the proceedings of the trial, published by ARF: Comité de soutien à Max Kilndjian, Les Arméniens en cour d’assises. Terroristes ou résistants ?, Marseille: Parenthèses, 1983.

[9] Yves Ternon, op. cit., pp. 223-224.

[10] Gaïdz Minassian, op. cit., pp. 45 and 65-66; Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., pp. 35 and 105.

[11] « L’ASALA sur et contre elle-même », Notes et études de l’institut de criminologie de Paris, n° 11-12, October 1989. http://www.drmcc.org/download_statique.php?dl=ne11_12.pdf

[12] Armand Gaspard (Gasparian), Le Combat arménien, Lausanne: L’Âge d’homme, 1984, p. 78; Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., pp. 81-82; Francis P. Hyland, op. cit., p. 210.

[13] Hay Baykar, March 17, 1983.

[14] http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198003100033 ; Sedat Laçiner, Ermeni Sorunu, Diaspora ve Türk Dış Politikası, Ankara: USAK, 2008, p. 251.

[15] http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198208080008

[16] Hay Baykar, September 29, 1982, and February 10, 1983.

[17] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., pp. 70-71.

[18] Quoted in Stephen Segaller, Invisible Armies. Terrorism into the 1990’s, London: Sphere Books/Penguin Books, 1987, p. 68.

[19] http://www.sos-attentats.org/fiche-temoignage-reaction.asp?id={D7B3D942-B91C-4C0A-8C55-B709AC73F6F2}&c=Temoignages&lan_id=fr

[20] Hay Baykar, March 11, 1985.

[21] Hay Baykar, October 13 and 27, 1983; March 11, 1985.

[22] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., p. 81.

[23] http://referentiel.nouvelobs.com/archives_pdf/OBS1145_19861017/OBS1145_19861017_046.pdf

[24] http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198002180004 ; Sedat Laçiner, ibid.

[25] See, especially, Hay Baykar, April 19 and September 29, 1982; and March 4, 1983.

[26] Bernard Lewis, “Muslim Anti-Semitism,” The Middle East Quarterly, June 1998, pp. 43-49 (http://www.meforum.org/396/muslim-anti-semitism).

[27] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., pp. 49-53.

[28] Armand Gaspard (Gasparian), op. cit., p. 75; Yves Yernon, op. cit., p. 221.

[29] http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/841/841.F2d.959.85-5037-5039.html

[30] Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG Terrorist Hampig Sassounian, op. cit., p. 51.

[31] Bruce Fein, “Armenian Terrorism with a North American Component: Sentencing Examples,” p. 3, in ATAA, Victims’ Impact Statement, 2000. http://www.ataa.org/reference/topalian/ATAA_Victim_Impact_Pleading.pdf

[32] “Mise au point et bilan de sept années d’actions armées”, Haïastan, October 1982.

[33] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., p. 69; Bilâl N. Şimşir, op. cit., tome II, pp. 780-815.

[34] http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198409030001 ; Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., p. 63; Francis P. Hyland, op. cit., p. 219.

[35] For instance: http://www.fra-france.com/print_article.php?id=57

[36] “Dix ans de lutte armée”, Haïastan, December 1985.

[37] Aram Khaligian, “The Necessities of Violence and National Culture in the Liberation Struggle,” The Armenian Weekly, December 31, 1986, p. 15.

[38] Gaïdz Minassian, op. cit., pp. 108-109 and 114.

[39] Andrew Mango, Turkey and the War on Terror. For Forty Years We Fought Alone, London-New York, Routledge, 2005, pp. 31-57.

[40] Hay Baykar, April 19, 1982.

[41] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., p. 78.

[42] Moorad Mooradian, “Turkish Groups’ Stereotyping Old Hat for Deniers,” The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, March 25, 2000.

[43] The California Courrier, August 4, 1983, p. 2.

[44] For instance: John D. Hagopian, “We Will Never Forget,” The Armenian Reporter, January 23 1982; “ASALA’s A. Yenikomshian Addresses New Year’s Message to Armenians,” id., January 26, 1982

[45] Armenian Terrorism and the Paris Trial, University of Ankara, 1984 (http://www.turquie-news.fr/IMG/pdf/TERORISME_ARMENIAN_ET_PROCES_DE_PARIS.pdf); France-Arménie, February 21, 1984; Hay Baykar, all the issues of January and February 1984; Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., p. 107; Bilâl N. Şimşir, op. cit., tome I, pp. 424-458.

[46] See, especially, The Armenian Weekly, January 14, 21 and 28, February 11, 1984; on the support to Hampig Sassounian in France, see Haïastan, June 1982, and the special issue on the Sassounian affair, February 1984.

[47] The California Courrier, February 7, 1985, p. 8.

[48] http://www.ataa.org/reference/topalian/VIS3_Kaslan_Affidavit.pdf

[49] On this murder: Bilâl N. Şimşir, op. cit., tome II, pp. 500-523.

[50] http://mfa.gov.az/eng/khojaly_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=39

[51] http://www.gide.com/front/EN/home.htm

[52] Terrorist Attack at Orly: Statements and Evidence Presented at the Trial, February 19 - March 2, 1985, Ankara, Faculty of Political Science, 1985. The original French version is available online: http://www.tetedeturc.com/home/spip.php?article96

[53] https://www.unodc.org/tldb/pdf/France_CAValdeMarne_1985.pdf

[54] « Soner Nayir libéré », Les Nouvelles d’Arménie magazine, n° 1, mars 1995.

[55] « Libération du militant arménien Monte Melkonian », Le Monde, 17 janvier 1989.

[56] See the deposition of Senator Robert Badinter, former minister of Justice(1981-1986) and president of Constitutional Council (1986-1995) in front of Accoyer sub-committee, 2008: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/rap-info/i1262.asp#P4036_1545373

[57] « Le terroriste Garbidjian quitte les prisons françaises », Libération, 24 avril 2001. http://www.liberation.fr/societe/0101371618-le-terroriste-garbidjian-quitte-les-prisons-francaises

[58] See this interview of 2008: http://www.armworld.am/detail.php?paperid=3029&pageid=96105&lang=_eng

[59] http://www.yerkir.eu/2008.11.16%20-%20FA%20-%20Interview%20Patrick%20Arapian.pdf

[60] « Le terroriste Garbidjian quitte les prisons françaises », art. cit.

[61] http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1142396.html http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=776

[62] Michael M. Gunter, op. cit., pp. 70-71 ; Bilâl N. Şimşir, op. cit., tome I, pp. 408-422.

[63] Letter of Gtutiun, April 8, 1991. I express my thanks to Sevil Kaplun, who sent to me a copy of this document.

[64] http://hetq.am/en/society/van/

[65] Haïastan, various issues, 1980-1986.

[66] “ASALA’s Day,” The Wall Street Journal, October 2, 1984, p. 30. See also, “Unraveling the Motivations for Armenian Terror,”, id., August 3, 1983.

[67] Quoted in Bruce Fein, “Armenia Crime Amnesia?”, The Washington Times, October 16, 2007. http://www.turkishcoalition.org/media/fein_wt.pdf See also Laurence Evans, United States Policy and the Partition of Turkey. 1914-1924, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965, pp. 272-273; and Yücel Güçlü, Armenians and the Allies in Cilicia. 1914-1923, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 2005, pp. 112-114 et 124-127.

[68] Archives du ministère des Affaires étrangères, série E, carton 304, dossier 7.

[69] Arthur Derounian, “The Armenian Displaced Persons,” Armenian Affairs Magazine, I-1, Winter 1949-1950 (http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/derounian-dashnak-dominat.htm); Ayhan Özer, “The Armenian-Nazi Collaboration in WWII,” The Turkish Times, July 15, 1996 (http://www.ataa.org/reference/nazi-ozer.html). The Armenian Weekly was actually named Hairenik Weekly.

[70] http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/04/28/ankara-conference/

[71] “Ermeni aydınlar da harekete geçiyor,” Radikal, February 1st, 2009 (http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetayV3&ArticleID=919591&Date=02.02.2009&CategoryID=77); “ASALA Threatens Gakavian over Apology Initiative,” Today’s Zaman, February 13, 2009 (http://todayszaman.com/news-166849-asala-threatens-gakavian-over-apology-initiative.html ).

[72] See note 64.

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http://www.turkishweekly.net/article/403/remembering-the-orly-attack.html
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N.B.We have backed up most of the (761 pages)online reference materials above, against possible unavailability on the net, just in case.

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Here's a small portion of further reference material:



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ASALA’s DAY, Wall Street Journal

While considering yet another of those infernal "Armenian Genocide" resolutions in Congress, we hear from:

HON. CARROLL HUBBARD, JR. OF KENTUCKY IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, October 9, 1984

Mr. HUBBARD: Mr. Speaker, I read an excellent editorial in the October 2 WaIl Street Journal entitled, “ASALA’s Day,” which I urge my colleagues in the House to read. Indeed, the points raised about considering resolutions in the House and Senate that might be interpreted as endorsing terrorism against the diplomats of a democratic ally, namely Turkey, are definitely worthy of our consideration.

The editorial follows:

ASALA’s DAY

In the 11 years since an Armenian terrorist campaign against Turkey began, 41 Turkish diplomats plus members of their families and other innocents have been murdered.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), one of the major perpetrators, seems reasonably clear in its long-range goal, although its objectives are sometimes clouded by factionalism. Its dominant faction wants to “liberate” the eastern provinces of Turkey and incorporate them into the Soviet Union. This was explicitly stated when the ASALA official journal editorialized: “Our forces never strike against the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia which is already liberated.”

NATO bases in eastern Turkey, just the region that ASALA wants to “liberate,” are essential to any Western defense against a Soviet attack in the Mideast. The Soviets poured more than a billion dollars of arms through Bulgaria into the hands of both leftist and rightist Turkish terrorists during the 1970s in an attempt to destabilize the bulwark of NATO’s southern flank. The Turks responded with martial law and defused the threat sufficiently to allow the present movement back to democracy. But there is no reason to believe that the Soviets have given up their campaign to isolate Turkey from its NATO allies.

The U.S. Congress has managed to bumble into this nasty game.

Two bills now before that body seek to commemorate the large number of deaths of Armenians in eastern Turkey during World War I. There can be little doubt that the Armenian repression was a terrible chapter in history and perhaps the Turks have been too insistent on denying guilt. But it was only one part of a global tragedy that claimed nearly 15 million lives. Dredging it up now in Congress, some 70 years after the event, may be a generous gesture toward Americans of Armenian descent but is hardly an appropriate signal to U.S. enemies.

The milder version, sponsored by Rep. Tony Coelho (D., Calif.) and passed by the full House, calls for April 24, 1985, to be a day to commemorate the Armenian "genocide perpetrated in Turkey between 1915 and 1923.” In specific terms, this bill would not directly affect U.S. policy.

But the bill that has recently passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee makes no pretense of avoiding current policy implications. Sponsored by Sens. Carl Levin CD., Mich.) and Pete Wilson (R., Calif.), Senate Resolution 241 calls for U.S. foreign policy “to take into account the genocide of the Armenian people. No one knows exactly what this means. According to his spokesman, Sen. Levin wants to link U.S. aid to the Turkish record on human rights.

The Turks are understandably confused, worried and upset. The Senate bill specifically says that the Ottoman empire and not the modern Turkish republic was responsible for the killings of Armenians. So, perhaps, the Turks have reacted too strongly to the threat of its passage. But, after more than a decade of terrorism, they can be excused for suspecting that the bills are part of a wider political agenda to separate Turkey from the West. In a week when Congress is examining ways to prevent attacks on our embassies, it is particularly ironic to consider resolutions that will be widely interpreted as endorsing terrorism against the diplomats of a democratic ally.

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3239) Can The Armenian Issue Be Solved Legally?” French Historian Maxime Gauin Argues

08 Feb 11
* From the conference chaired by Sukru Elekdag - 19/03/2009

There were many occasions when the Turkish Government could have gone to court in the past against the Armenians, but did not choose to do so. However, it is not too late to resort to litigation against some Armenians, Armenian organizations, and/or publications for slander and hate crimes.

I) Occasions missed by Turks to crush Armenian Aggression in Western countries . .

— December 25, 1933: Archbishop Leon Tourian is assassinated by Dashnaks in his church in New York. The majority of US newspapers, even The New York Times, describes Dashnak party as a gang of terrorists, funded by Nazi and Fascist regimes.

Despite the fact that ARF attempted to kill Atatürk several times during the 1920’s, and that several Dashnaks were hanged in Turkey for plotting, Turkish diplomacy did not pursue any prosecution against ARF in the USA, whose offices are located in Boston, MA.

— 1944: non-Dashnak Armenian Americans publish in New York “Dashnak Collaboration with the Nazi Regime”. Turkey does not ask for a court case for Armenian collaboration with the enemy. Similarly, despite the collaboration between ARF and Nazis in France, Turkish embassy does not protest to the French government. The neighborhood of the young Dashnak members in Décines-Charpieu (Lyon’s suburb) is even named “Dro” — the name of the chief of 812th Armenian battalion of Wermacht.

— Spring 1973: Asbarez, the newspaper of ARF in the Western part of the USA, publishes explicit calls to terrorism against the Turks, which could be a reason for a legal case to be opened under US law. Both Dashnak and non-Dashnak associations of California support Gourgen Yanıkian and condone his use of violence. No court case is filed.

— Winter 1976: In Paris, Ara Toranian starts to publish Hay Baykar/Combat Arménien, a weekly publication supporting the ASALA, as well as ASALA-RM, and sometimes Justice Commandos of Armenian Genocide/Armenian Revolutionary Army (terroristic branch of ARF) as well. Toranian receives no punishment until 1988. The French law punishes any incitement to take arms against the State, or against a part of the population, for up to five years, if the provocation is not followed by acts; and by up to 30 years of jail if the provocation is followed by physical acts. Toranian was sued in 1985-1986 for material help to terrorists; he was sentenced in the first instance, but won after an appeal found some benefit of doubt in the case.

— May 27, 1976: a terrorist of JCAG is killed by the accidental explosion of his bomb; the incident happens in the general quarter of ARF in France, rue Bleue (Blue Street) of Paris. French police seizes documents about the assassination of Turkish ambassadors in Paris and Vienna, as well as other documents regarding the future bombings in İstanbul, on May 28 and June 9, 1977. Turkish embassy files no complaint, despite the obvious hate of ARF for the actual French center-right government, hostility which had resulted in the political fragility of Dashnaks at that time.

— 1980-1986: Haïastan, newspaper of the young French Dashnaks, publishes many articles supporting terrorism, calling to take arms, which could be sufficient reason to have the editorial staff to be sentenced to jail. No complaint is filed, even after the departure of pro-Dashnaks from French socialist government in 1984.

— June 1981: Ara Toranian and his friends occupy the Parisian office of Turkish Airlines. No court case was brought up for disturbing the public order.

— January 1982: Stanford J. Shaw’s office is ransacked by fanatic Armenian -American students, encouraged by Richard G. Hovannisian. Because of this violence, as well as repeated assaults, Prof. Shaw is prevented to teach at the University of California, at least until 1986. No court case against the perpetrators and Prof. Hovannisian was sought. No court case, too, was filed against those who sent death threats to Shaw’s family.

—July 2, 1983: The Armenian Weekly, newspaper of ARF in the Eastern part of the USA, publishes an article supporting the terrorists; More articles in the same vein are published in the issues of August 21, 1983, September 17, December 10, December 24; January 14, 1984, January 21 and January 28. No complaint is filed by Turkish diplomats or by Turkish-American associations, despite the conviction of murderer, Hampig Sassounian to life, in 1984.

— 1983: Harry Derderian, leader of the Armenian National Committee (ANC, branch of ARF in the USA) states to a reporter: “If terrorism is a contributing factor in getting people’s attention, I can go along with it.” (quoted in The Washington Times, August 3, 1983). No court case for incitation to murder was filed.

— 1985: Armenian activists fail to obtain “recognition” in the European Parliament. The Turks consider that the game is over, and Armenian activists are the winners in 1987.

— 1990-1994: several French citizens obtain the condemnation of persons who called them “denialists” in Paris and Lyon’s tribunals. Turkish diplomacy does not use these judgments to sue the Armenian activists who regularly call them “denialists”.

— 1993-1995: “Lewis affair”. No Turkish scholar attempts to support Bernard Lewis; Turkish embassy fails to ask Prof. Lewis to appeal his conviction. In two other matters, judged in 2004 and 2005, the Cour de Cassation (French supreme court) decides that the 1382 article of civil code (used against Bernard Lewis) can never be used to restrict the freedom of speech about individuals.

— 1995-1996: “Lowry affair”. Prof. Heath Lowry (Princeton University), victim of defamation and character assassination, receives no support from Turks.

— 1998-2000: “Veinstein affair”. Prof. Gilles Veinstein, elected at the Collège de France, is defamed in several newspapers, receives death threats in his mail box, and in May of 2000, is even assaulted in Aix-en-Provence. Nobody suggests to Prof. Veinstein to sue those who defamed and assaulted him, or at least to file a complaint against unknown persons for death threats; no financial support is proposed. (He has explained to me the difficulty to pay a good lawyer with his salary).

— April 8, 2000. Fanatic young Armenian-Americans attack the “Turkish Night” in University of South California. Policemen arrive and two Armenians are arrested, but the event is canceled. No complaint against the leaders of this anti-Turkish riot (probably ARF) was filed. It was the last of a long series, which started in 1974.

— Spring, Summer and Fall 2000: Huge Armenian demonstration asking “recognition” by the French Senate. There was almost no Turkish reaction.

— 1st January 2001: Following a reform of the French penal code, the decision to liberate persons sentenced to life is no more taken by the Minister of Justice, but by a judge. Immediately, the lawyers of V. Garbidjian, the butcher of Orly, use this reform to obtain the release of their client. Since the Turkish side replies nothing about claims of “genocide” (unlike during the trial), Garbidjian is set free in April of 2001.

— 2002-2003: A hate campaign of both Dashnaks and non-Dashnaks against Samuel Weems, retired U.S. judge and author of “Armenia. The Secrets of a ChristianTerrorist State”. The attacks include death threats and defamation. No Turkish support or official complaint pursues.

— 2003: former ASALA spokesman Ara Toranian is elected president of Coordination, Council of French Armenian Associations. No letters of complaint are sent to politicians who welcome Mr. Toranian.

— 2007: Ara Toranian publishes on his Web site an article presenting Monte Melkonian as a “national hero”. (Melkonian, leader of ASALA until 1983, then of ASALA-RM, was sentenced by Paris tribunal to 4 years of jail for terroristic activities, including illegal storing of weapons and explosives, and served more than three years before to be expelled from French territory.) No reaction.

— April 24, 2009: Ara Toranian calls his “compatriots” to “return to the activism of 1975-1980 years”. No reaction.

— November 2009: Ara Toranian publishes in his newspaper an article of Monte Melkonian, and at least one sentence could have been sufficient to sue him in court for offense to a judgment. Indeed, Mr. Toranian wrote that Melkonian “stopped terrorism” in 1983: Melkonian was sentenced for terroristic activities which happened in 1983-1985. However, no complaint is filed. It is now too late to sue him.

II) The lessons of Some Trials in Western Countries:

A) Trials of Armenian terrorists in Switzerland and in France, during the 1980’s

— The Mardiros Jamgotchian trial (1981)

On June 9, 1981, Mardiros Jamgotchian, an ASALA terrorist, assassinates Mehmet Savaş Yergüz, secretary of Turkish general consul in Geneva. Mardiros Jamgotchian is arrested by Swiss police and brought to court at the end of 1981.

Mardiros Jamgotchian’s defense uses mainly the “genocide” claims as an excuse for the crime. Among the witnesses testifying for the terrorist, there are the “historians” Jean-Marie Carzou (who called a return of Armenian terrorism in a speech of 1972) and Yves Ternon (from 1974 to 2008, a columnist in Haratch, a daily edited by the sympathizers of ARF in Paris). Turkey sends no scholars to challenge the lies of these “scholars”, despite the fact that Türkkaya Ataöv, Salâhi R. Sonyel, Bilâl Şimşir and Esat Uras had already published serious studies on the Armenian issue, and despite the first scholarly symposium organized in Turkey about Armenian issue, ironically in June 1981. Gwynne Dyer, Bernard Lewis and Stanford J. Shaw are not solicited.

Similarly, nobody recalls that one of the lawyers of the ASALA terrorist, Patrick Devedjian, was a member of a far- right group in the 1960′s. This group was vehemently racist, anti-Semitic, and used physical violence; It was outlawed by the French government in the fall of 1968, after a bombing was perpetrated by these fanatics. (Until 2006, Mr. Devedjian refused to express any regret for his past in the violent far right movement.)

As a result of Turkish passivity, Mardiros Jamgotchian was sentenced to only 15 years of jail (the prosecutor had asked for a life sentence), and he was released as early as 1991.

— The Max Hraïr Kilndjian trial (1982)

In February 1980, the Turkish ambassador in Switzerland was the victim of an attempted murder by JCAG. Suspected to be the criminal, because several testimonies, French Dashnak Max Hraïr Kilndjian was arrested and indicted by French authorities. The investigation and the case lasted two years: 1980-1982. Except for a few statements, Turkey showed little reaction. The witnesses of the incident were threatened to death, and nobody, not even MİT, proposed to protect them from Geneva to Aix-en-Provence, where Max Hraïr Kilndjian is prosecuted and tried. As a result, only one witness had the courage to appear in front of the court in 1982. Consequently, Max Hraïr Kildjian’s lawyers were successful in having their client not sentenced for attempt of murder, but only as an accessory in the crime, citing lack of evidence.

Secondly, like during the Jamgotchian trial, several self-proclaimed “scholars” deceive a tribunal completely ignorant of Ottoman history. (In the beginning of the trial, the president asked: “Who is Talat Pasha?”) Turkish Government paid a well-known and efficient lawyer from Marseille, but he was alone against the witnesses of defense and the extremely aggressive crowd of Dashnaks within the tribunal, as well as outside the building.

As a result, Max Hraïr Kilndjian is sentenced to two years of jail, and obtains freedom, since he had spent already this time in jail before the trial.

— The trial of attack against Paris Consulate General 1984)

Paris Consulate General of Turkey is attacked by four terrorists of ASALA in September 1981. The Turkish Consul General is seriously wounded and a guard killed. The trial was started in 1984, i.e. after the Orly attack, and at a time when the right-wing opposition criticized the socialist government about the question of terrorism; Thus, the political atmosphere was less in favor of Armenian nationalists and could become in favor of Turks.

This time, Turkey sent Prof. Türkkaya Ataöv and a delegate of Armenian patriarchate of İstanbul; but Armenian nationalists sent many more witnesses, including Jean-Marie Carzou and Yves Ternon, whose services were already used for the Jamgotchian and Kilndjian trials. So, the Turks were not neglectful, but did not show an appropriate level of response. For example, nobody asked to Dr. Paul B. Henze, Dr. Justin McCarthy and Prof. Michael M. Gunter to at least make a written statement.

As a result, the four terrorists were sentenced to seven years of jail, a sentence considered too long by ASALA’s supporters and by Dashnaks, but clearly less than given in several other cases of assaults with death.

— The Orly trial and other court cases of 1985:

This time, the Turkish side was very well organized, sending several witnesses, including Prof. Türkkaya Ataöv and Prof. Mumtaz Soysal. The plaintiffs had three lawyers: two for arguing about the attack itself, and one, the famous Jean Loyrette (who made his firm the best in France), specifically to challenge “genocide” claims.

The lawyers of defense, Jacques Vergès and Patrick Devedjian, did not present the testimonies of Mr. Carzou or Mr. Ternon this time, afraid to seem supporting the worst kind of terrorism.

However, on a purely legal level, the defense had some advantage. Indeed, in 1985 (it changed as early as 1986), French law did not authorize release of the methods of investigation used against terrorists. So, the Direction de la surveillance du territoire (French counter-intelligence and counter-terrorist police service) refrained from exposing all the material in the legal file, being afraid that other terrorists, including members of ASALA, could use such information to prepare future attacks with more safety. As a result, the principal perpetrator of attack, V. Garbidjian, was tried and sentenced as an accessory, not as an assassin (see, for example, the testimony of Gilles Ménage, chief of staff of President François Mitterrand, in the documentary about Jacques Vergès, Advocate of Terror, by Barbet Schröder, 2007; only the French original version is available in DVD).

So, if V. Garbidjian was sentenced to life, it was not only because the majority of the victims killed were non-Turks, but also because the plaintiffs were able to challenge efficiently the “genocide” claims.

Similarly, Jean Loyrette obtained during other trials organized in 1985-1986, that several members of Armenian National Movement (political branch of ASALA until 1983, of ASALA-RM after that date) be sentenced to two to four years of jail for illegal storing of explosives. In a comparable case in Switzerland, 1981, two ASALA terrorists were sentenced to only eighteen months of suspended jail, and immediately released after the trial, to the satisfaction of the terrorists. This time, however, fanatics were very unhappy.

B) Court cases in Switzerland, USA and France during the 2000’s

— The Perinçek trial

Doğu Perinçek wanted to be judged under the regime of the Swiss law that prohibits the challenge of the “Armenian genocide” claims. in some circumstances (and in some circumstances only: despite demands of Armenian nationalists, Prof. Norman Stone was never sued because his article was published in a German-speaking Swiss newspaper). Mr. Perinçek chooses a very good Swiss lawyer, but he leaves him completely alone until a few days before the trial. He gives the lawyer 90 kg of documents, written in Russian. Some Swiss Turks make the heroic effort to translate some of these documents, and discover that they are irrelevant to the Armenian issue.

As a result, Doğu Perinçek is sentenced.

— Jean Schmidt vs David Krikorian

During the elections for US Congress of 2008, the staff of David Krikorian (local leader of ARF, actually independent candidate of the far right, now a Democrat!) uses defamatory posters against Jean Schmidt, republican MP who attempted to be reelected (and was, finally). So, Ms. Schmidt sues Mr. Krikorian, thanks to her personal lawyer as well as to the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF), represented for this case by Bruce Fein, international lawyer, specialist of penal law.

Armenian side — this time united, since both Dashnak and non-Dashnak press supported Mr. Krikorian — makes huge efforts, but Mr. Fein stresses, with precise arguments, not only about the defamation itself, but also that there is a scholarly debate about “genocide” allegations.

As a result, electoral commission of Ohio accepted the majority of Ms. Schmidt’s complaints, and declared Mr. Krikorian guilty. We are still waiting to know if Ms. Schmidt will also sue in a civil tribunal.

We also have to wait for the results of the court case of Prof. Guenter Lewy (defended by TALDF) against the Southern Poverty Law Center, but it looks promising.

— The Lyon’s affairs

At the beginning of 2008, before the municipal elections in March, Sırma Oran-Martz, daughter of Baskın Oran, a naturalized French citizen, is presented as a candidate for the Green Party as a candidate for mayor of Villeurbanne (principal town of Lyon’s suburb, with an important Armenian community, entirely led by ARF). Ms. Oran-Martz is pressured to “recognize the genocide”, with increasingly humiliating conditions, and finally renounces her candidacy.

The author of this paper publishes an article on the Web, commenting on the incident, and focusing on the abusive use of the word “denialist” and on the crimes of ARF, from 1890’s to current times. The article is signed, cautiously, only by my initials, . Two days after the publication, my name is revealed on the main French-Armenian Web forum, and I am threatened by death. After a threat by me to file a complaint against him, the majority of messages concerning me are deleted by Ara Toranian, moderator-in-chief of this forum. Following this incident, there is a meeting in Villeurbanne, with Movsès Nissanian, municipal counselor of Villeurbanne and a member of ARF. Mr. Nissanian insults me, saying that I am like “those who sent Jews to Auschwitz”. His words are recorded by the husband of Ms. Oran-Martz, Jean-Patrick Martz.

As a result, two court cases are filed, with the same lawyer, in front of exactly the same Lyon’s tribunal, but with completely different strategies. The legal basis of Sırma Oran’s case against the mayor of Villeurbanne is very slim. The legal basis of my court case against Mr. Nissanian is so strong that even his lawyer does not contest the legal qualification. Despite my repeated suggestions, Ms. Oran refuses absolutely to challenge “genocide” claims. In my court case, when I discover that Mr. Nissanian’s lawyer produced written conclusions of 18 pages focused on “genocide” allegations, I and my lawyer ask, with success, the postponing of the trial; it is postponed from November 3, 2009, to January 5, 2010. During this time, I prepare a text which my lawyer transforms into two appendixes for his arguments: one about ARF (terroristic activities of 1890-1914; terroristic activities of interwar; collaboration with Nazism; terroristic activities of 1975-1993); and one about “genocide claims”, responding to every argument of Mr. Nissanian. I also give my lawyer many articles of the French Dashnak press that supports terrorism.

In addition to these court cases, I also filed a complaint for defamation in the police station of my Parisian district in October 2008, for defamation on the forum of armenews.com As a result of my complaint, Mr. Toranian destroyed his free-access forum entirely, less than seven hours after my complaint.

Not surprisingly, the results are very different. The mayor of Villeurbanne is acquitted on January 5, 2010, and Ms. Oran is sentenced to pay him 1,500 € as a part of his court costs, and 1,500 € as damages for abusive procedure. In the same afternoon, the same tribunal judged Maxime Gauin vs. Movsès Nissanian case. About a half-hour later, the same president who pronounced a severe verdict against Ms. Oran says, “The tribunal does not have to decide between historical thesis.” We have to wait for the verdict on April 27, but one can already notice that Mr. Nissanian has lost his arrogance during the tribunal. He is so afraid to be severely sentenced that he said, in the beginning: “I regret to have used such words”; and in the end: “I reprove these acts of terrorism”.

Another big difference is perceptible in the conditions of the trials. There were many Dashnaks present at both trials. On November 3 (Oran-Martz vs. Bret), they are extremely aggressive and arrogant, and, despite the fact that I was a simple spectator, I am upset by a young Dashnak who was completely hateful. On January 5, there were no young Dashnaks, only old Armenians, who were quiet and showed polite faces. I am able to praise a study of Prof. Yusuf Halaçoğlu and to demonstrate the involvement of ARF leadership in terrorism without provoking a single scream in the room.

Why did this difference exist? Surely not because of a sudden indulgence of Dashnaks for me. More pragmatically, because I wrote a right of reply to Dashnak site (published before the trial), explaining that I would sue anybody who would attack me, and that Mr. Nissanian would be the first to be punished in case of incidents —the nationalist Armenian groups who support him would be next in line.

I sent a last warning one day before the trial. On January 4, Mr. Toranian defamed me on his Web site. I immediately sent an e-mail to him, threatening to sue him, too. One half-hour later, Mr. Toranian answered that to prevent any misunderstanding, he was deleting his article — and he kept his promise.

My court case against Mr. Nissanian, and even the court case of Ms. Oran, had the advantage of showing that the Armenian nationalists of France should refrain from using as an ultimate argument the “recognition” law of January 2001. Indeed, this law is unconstitutional (French Constitution forbids the declarative laws), and a reform of Constitution, voted in 2008, authorizes any person involved in a court case, as plaintiff or as a defendant, to argue of the unconstitutionality of a law if the opposite side uses this law as a main argument.

Even if Mr. Nissanian is severely sentenced and does not appeal such a decision, I have some projects to continue on purely legal ways. Mr. Nissanian is just a municipal counselor, and it would be very unjust that he should remain a long time the single Armenian nationalist of French sued for hate speech.

Conclusion

Both trials of 1980’s and 2000’s demonstrate that court cases are needed, and they are an efficient way to crush Armenian fanatical nationalism, if, and only if:

— An appropriate lawyer is chosen;

— His client is not afraid to challenge “genocide” claims, with scholarly arguments expressed politely submitted, and if he is not afraid to file new complaints in case of new attacks;

— The legal basis is strong.

Armenian nationalism cannot exist without violating the laws of democratic countries, especially the law forbidding defamation. Armenian nationalists understand only the politics of power. As a democratic country herself, Turkey cannot use the methods of rogues — and would probably not want to do it. But Turks should use the excellent means offered by law without hesitation.

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http://ataturksocietyuk.com/2011/02/08/%E2%80%9Ccan-the-armenian-issue-be-solved-legally%E2%80%9D-french-historian-maxime-gauin-argues

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