#armenians

Today in history.

This was a key event marking the beginning of the Armenian genocide.

1.5 million Armenians would be murdered by the Ottoman Empire.

To this day, Turkey still denies that it ever happened, while also glorifying the perpetrators.

Photographs of Armenians in Syunik, by Gurgen (Guros) Paronyan(1905-1981).

Throughout his photographic career, Guros photographed everything that was disappearing or changing; settlements that were moved from the canyon to the plain during the Soviet years, during which time they were abandoned or demolished, and monuments that were destroyed by earthquakes or human intervention․

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“Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them.”

— Duke Duke Leto Atreides, Dune

In the spring of 1915, the three most powerful men of the Ottoman Empire, the Three Pashas — Talaat, Enver, and Djemal — unleashed what would later become the porotype of the Holocaust. 

Under the orders of these “Young Turks,” more than a million Armenians were massacred, starved, or sent to die in the Syrian desert. Villages were burned, children were drowned, priests were crucified, communities older than Islam were erased. 

From 2 million people, the Armenian population of Anatolia was reduced to only a few tens of thousands. This was one of the most complete genocides in human history. The same terrible fate was visited on the Greeks and Assyrians of this dying and rotten empire as well. Over half a million more were murdered, more than a million were expelled.

In the words of Bahaeddin Şakir, one of the main executors of the genocide:

The Committee, as the bearer of the nation's honor, has decided to free the homeland from the inordinate ambitions of this accursed nation and to assume the responsibility for the blemish that will stain Ottoman history… The Committee… has decided to annihilate all of Armenians living within Turkey, not to allow a single one to remain.

Not only was this an unspeakable crime against the Armenian people, it was also the ultimate betrayal of their leadership, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, who supported the Young Turks during the 1908 Revolution.

After the genocides, the “Three Pashas” responsible for this enormity left the country under assumed names and lived comfortably in Europe.

But the Armenians did not forget.

In 1920, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation launched Operation Nemesis. The mission: track down and eliminate the masterminds of the genocide, one by one, anywhere in the world. Those who were denied justice in courts or papers would win justice with lead and steel.

Thus began one of the greatest stories of worldwide revenge in human history.

The Ottoman List

Talaat Pasha, Minister of Interior and Grand Vizier of the Empire, had fled to Berlin, confident that Germany’s indifference would keep him safe. On March 15, 1921, Armenian avenger Soghomon Tehlirian, whose entire family had been murdered, confronted Talaat in broad daylight and shot him in the head. At his trial, Tehlirian declared, “I am not a murderer — I am the son of a murdered people.” Just like the Jewish avenger Sholem Schwarzbard, the jury acquitted him.

Said Halim Pasha. The former Grand Vizier who signed the deportation orders was gunned down in Rome in December 1921.

Behaeddin Shakir. Head of the feared Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa, the paramilitary force that carried out much of the slaughter. On April 17, 1922, Shirakian and Yerganian caught up with him in Berlin and killed him along with Cemal Azmi, the “Butcher of Trebizond” who had overseen the mass drowning of Armenian women and children. Even though the two men were walking with their families, none of their relatives were hurt.

Djemal Pasha. Wāli of Syria Vilayet and Minister of the Navy who had Armenian intellectuals executed in Constantinople (and also massacred Arab intellectuals in the Middle East.) On July 21, 1922, in Tbilisi, Stepan Dzaghigian, Petros Ter Poghosian, and Artashes Gevorgyan ambushed him, killing both Djemal and his adjutant.

Enver Pasha. The dreaded Ottoman Minister of War escaped retribution but only because he had the bright idea to go fight the Red Army in Central Asia in 1922. And, well, you can imagine how well this ended for him…

The Azerbaijani List

Nemesis was not only aimed at Ottoman officials. In September 1918, during the Baku Massacre, thousands of Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman–Azerbaijani forces under Khalil Bey and Fattah Khan Khoiski. 

Fatali Khan Khoyski. Prime Minister of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, implicated in authorizing and enabling the Baku Massacre. On June 19, 1920, in Tbilisi, Khoiski was shot dead by Aram Yerganian, who approached him casually in the street before firing.

Behbud Khan Javanshir. Former Minister of the Interior of Azerbaijan. On July 18, 1921, in Constantinople, Nemesis agent Misak Grigorian intercepted him as he exited a mosque and killed him with a single shot to the head. The British tribunal issued a guilty verdict but ruled that Torlakian was not responsible for his actions due to his epilepsy.

One Nemesis operative later said: “We were the law when the law failed. We were the verdict when the judges were silent.”

URI KURLIANCHIK