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| {{Infobox criminal | |||
| | name = Gourgen Yanikian | |||
| | image = | |||
| | image_size = 250px | |||
| | alt = | |||
| | caption = | |||
| | birth_name = Gourgen Mkrtich Yanikian | |||
| | birth_date = {{Birth date|1895|12|24}} | |||
| | birth_place = ], ] | |||
| | residence = | |||
| | death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|2|29|1895|12|24}} | |||
| | death_place = ], ] | |||
| | cause = | |||
| | resting_place = | |||
| | alias = | |||
| | allegiance = <!-- ] --> | |||
| | motive = ] | |||
| | charge = Assassination | |||
| | conviction = | |||
| | conviction_penalty = Life imprisonment | |||
| | conviction_status = Paroled by American authorities | |||
| | occupation = ], ] | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Gourgen Mkrtich Yanikian''' ({{lang-hy|Գուրգեն Մկրտիչ Եանիկեան}}, December 24, 1895 – February 29, 1984) was an ] author, ] and an ] survivor, who assassinated two ] consular officials (Los Angeles Consul General Mehmet Baydar and Consul Bahadır Demir) in ] in 1973.<ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{citation | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3DD1439F932A35750C0A962948260&sec=&spon= | contribution = Imprisoned Armenian Dies | title = ] | date = March 1, 1984}}.</ref> | |||
| ==Biography== | |||
| ===Early life=== | |||
| Yanigian was born in ] in 1895, at the height of the ] massacres that had taken hold of the eastern provinces of the ]. His family was able to flee to a safer location, but when they returned to Erzurum eight years later to retrieve personal possessions they had hidden in a barn, his elder brother Hagop was killed by two Turkish men.<ref>Bobelian, Michael. ''Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009, pp. 3-4.</ref> Yanikian was studying to be an engineer at the ] when World War I broke out. After learning of the Turkish persecution of Armenians during the ], he journeyed to the ] in the spring of 1915 and joined a volunteer regiment of the ] to find out the fate of his family members, whom he had not heard from since the outbreak of the war, living in the Ottoman Empire. He was assigned to an engineering unit that was tasked with mapping out the geography of the terrain ahead of the regular troops. As the Russian army advanced, Yanikian witnessed first hand the destruction wrought against the Armenians. Upon his arrival in Erzerum, he found his father's business in ruins and recognized the bodies of two of his relatives. In the course of the genocide he lost twenty-six members of his extended family.<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', pp. 4-6.</ref><ref name=ArmenianGuilty /><ref name=ArmenianHeld>{{citation | url = http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70C17F83E551A7493CBAB178AD85F478785F9 | contribution = Armenian Held in Coast Slaying of Two Turks | title = The New York Times | date = July 29, 1973}}.</ref> | |||
| ===Later life=== | |||
| Yanikian would later go on to complete his education in Russia and then move to Iran in 1930 together with his wife Suzanna. They settled in Tehran where Suzanna opened a gynecological clinic while Yanikian set up a civil engineering company called RAHSAZ<ref>Kalaydjian, Tigran. ''Sentinel of Truth: Gourgen Yanikian and the Struggle Against the Denial of the Armenian Genocide''. SBPRA (2012). ISBN 978-1-62212-995-9 p. 25.</ref>. Amongst other construction projects, he oversaw the building of a railroad across Iran during the Second World War, as part of Allied efforts there.<ref name=ArmenianGuilty>{{citation | url = http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0F1FFE385C1A7A93C1A9178CD85F478785F9 | contribution = Armenian Guilty of Killing Turks | title = The New York Times | date = July 3, 1973}}.</ref> He emigrated to the ] in 1946, where he published several novels including {{citation | title = The Triumph of Judas Iscariot | year = 1950}}, ''Harem Cross'' (1953) and ''The Voice of an American'' (1960). In the late 1960s, however, events in Yanikian's personal life took a turn for the worst. | |||
| The State Department refused to compel Iran to pay him the $1.5 million he claimed he was owed for the construction work he had overseen there. In 1944 the Iranian court issued an award in favor of Yanikian against ], which stipulated that the Ministry was to compensate Yanikian for the implemented construction works by 26 November 1944, but the Ministry failed to pay the award until 15 August 1948, and Yanikian sought to recover the damages for the delay in payment. The Iranian government stated that Yanikian was paid in full, and the ] dismissed in 1985 the claims of Yanikian's attorneys citing the lack of jurisdiction over items of the claim.<ref>J. C. Adlam, M. E. MacGlashan. Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Reports, Volume 8. Cambridge University Press, 1987. ISBN 0521464420, 9780521464420, pp 290-297</ref> | |||
| As his wife fell ill and expensive medical bills forced him into insolvency, he became despondent.<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', pp. 141-44.</ref> Memories of the genocide lingered in his mind and visions of his dead brother haunted him for years. The ]'s continual ] remained a source of anguish and pain. Eventually, Yanikian, believing he had little left to live for, resolved to avenge the deaths of his family members and bring greater awareness to the genocide by organizing the assassination of the perpetrator country's agents, an act that took its cue from the example set by ] fifty years earlier.<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', pp. 143-45.</ref> | |||
| ===Assassination of Turkish consuls=== | |||
| On January 27, 1973, the 77-year old Yanikian lured the Turkish consul general Mehmet Baydar, 47, and vice-consul Bahadır Demir, 30, to a cottage at the ] in ], promising to make a gift to the nation of Turkey of a ] and a painting stolen from the palace of the ] more than a century earlier.<ref>"." ''Beaver County Times''. Feb. 27, 1973.</ref> Yanikian had contacted the consul general three months earlier, and insisted that the consul general personally accept the painting, and since Baydar did not drive, Demir was asked to accompany him to provide transportation.<ref name="LAT">"Return of Painting Used as Lure in Consuls' Slayings, Police Say." '']''. January 29, 1973.</ref> Baydar, married and the father of two daughters, was a career diplomat, who had previously served in Paris and Washington. Demir was on his first foreign assignment.<ref name="LAT"/> That neither man was alive during the genocide "mattered little to Yanikian," according to journalist Michael Bobelian: "Just as Ottoman dehumanization of the Armenians a half century earlier opened the door for so many ordinary citizens to participate in the Genocide, Yanikian came to view the men not as human beings, but as symbols of decades of injustice."<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', p. 146.</ref> | |||
| Yanikian handed them the bank note, for which he was given a receipt, and the three men began to converse over lunch.<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', p. 147.</ref> It was during this time that Yanikian revealed to them that he was not Iranian, as he had told the consulate when he first contacted them, but Armenian. Baydar dropped the bank note in anger and a heated exchange took place. It was at this point that Yanikian yelled "I will kill you," pulled a ] pistol from a hollowed-out book and emptied nine rounds at them, hitting them in the shoulders and chest, though none of the wounds were lethal. As Baydar and Demir lay on the ground Yanikian pulled out a ] pistol from a drawer and fired two rounds into the head of each man, "what he considered mercy shots."<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', pp. 147-48.</ref> He phoned the front desk of the hotel from his room and requested that the sheriff be contacted, because "I have just killed two men."<ref name= "ArmenianHeld"/> | |||
| Before meeting the Turkish diplomats, Yanikian sent a letter to an Armenian language newspaper, urging Armenians to wage a war on on Turkish diplomats.<ref>West, Richard. "Armenian Held in 2 Slayings Urged 'War' on Turk Envoys." ''Los Angeles Times''. January 30, 1973</ref> | |||
| The Turkish Embassy reacted to the killings by calling on the United States to take action to protect its nationals, and the American Ambassador in ] condemned the killings, stating he and all Americans were "shocked at this senseless act of violence."<ref name=ArmenianHeld /> Fifty ] agents were assigned to investigate Yanikian's background, including exploring possible (though ultimately non-existent) ties to the ] or to a well-organized "Armenian gang."<ref>See Bobelian, ''Children of Armenia'', pp. 153-54.</ref> | |||
| ===Trial and sentencing=== | |||
| Yanikian pled not guilty to two charges of first degree murder. Although over the course of the trial he openly conceded that he had caused the deaths of the men, he insisted that he was not guilty of any crime.<ref name=ArmenianGuilty /> Yanikian insisted that what he did was "destroy two evils," as the victims were "not human" for him.<ref name="court">.</ref> Yanikian admitted that he conceived the assassination plan in April 1972, and meticulously implemented it over the intervening months between that time and the date of the actual homicides on January 27, 1973. He had originally planned to carry out the homicides in the consular offices, but changed his mind upon visiting the offices where he observed the presence of numerous employees who "might try to be heroes and get hurt."<ref name="court"/> | |||
| In an interview with reporters in a court anteroom he slammed his hands down on the table and declared that other people "have had their ] but we have not."<ref name = ArmenianGuilty /> Yanikian's defense counsel, headed by defense attorney James T. Lindsey, had attempted to bring in survivors of the Armenian Genocide to testify as to the trauma of the experiences, as part of the defense strategy of depicting Yanikian as having "diminished mental capacity," but these motions were denied in court.<ref name =ArmenianGuilty /> After Yanikian's death, District Attorney David D. Minier wrote, "Looking back, I regret that I did not allow the genocide to be proven. Not because Yanikian should have gone free, but because history's darkest chapters — its genocides — should be exposed, so their horrors are less likely to be repeated."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> | |||
| Armenians hoped Yanikian's trial would provide a vehicle for proving the massacres in a court of law, while there were still surviving witnesses, but District Attorney Minier didn't agree. Only Yanikian took the Armenian Genocide witness stand, accompanied by his friend and interpreter, Santa Barbaran Aram Saroyan, the uncle of famous author ]. Yanikian told of coming across mutilated corpses and finding the decapitated bodies of his relatives killed in the massacres, and how he watched in hiding as marauding Turks slit his brother's throat.<ref>Bobelian. ''Children of Armenia'', p. 156.</ref> He concluded by saying that he killed the Turkish diplomats as representatives of the "government that had massacred his people."<ref name="ReferenceA">{{citation | contribution = Murder Will Out? District Attorney Regrets Not Allowing Genocide Testimony at Murder Trial | first = David D | last = Minier | title = ] | date = Apr 2, 1998}}.</ref> | |||
| Yanikian's defense was based entirely on his claim of diminished capacity. However, the jury did not find this to be convincing, because it was clear from the testimony of Yanikan that he understood he was taking the lives of two human beings and that he did so because he considered it justified.<ref name="court"/> | |||
| Yanikian was sentenced to life in prison on July 2, 1973; several members of the jury were reported to have had tears in their eyes as the verdict was read by the forewoman.<ref>Bobelian, ''Children of Armenia'', p. 158.</ref> A ] declined Yanikian's appeal and ruled that Yanikan's "ability to deliberate and to premeditate his crime was demonstrated by his own testimony of the elaborate preparations pursuant to a plan which was executed with logic and precision. Defendant's testimony showed the plan was initiated many months prior to its execution and involved the use of a bait to lure the consular officials to the place chosen by defendant."<ref name="court"/> Despite objections from the ], Yanikian was paroled on January 31, 1984 because of poor health, and transferred to a ] ] hospital. He died of a ] one month later at the age of 88.<ref>"Paroled Assassin of Two Turkish Diplomats Dies." ''Los Angeles Times'', February 29, 1984.</ref><ref name="query.nytimes.com"/> | |||
| ==Legacy== | |||
| Yanikian is known to have remarked, "I’m not Gourgen Yanikian but unacknowledged history coming back for the 1,500,000 Armenians whose bones desecrate my invisible existence."<ref>Der Mugurdechian, Barlow. "Across the Chasm: From Catastrophe to Creativity" in ''The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies'', ed. ]. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007, p. 72.</ref> In death, Yanikian became a symbol for many Armenians of their resentment toward the Turkish government for refusing to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. | |||
| Upon Yanikian's death, one of his attorneys, ], remarked that he "is now a piece of Armenian history."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> | |||
| Yanikian would later be appropriated by the ] as an iconic figure.<ref name=rapo>{{citation | last = Rapoport | first = David C | title = Terrorism | year = 2006 | pages= 44–5}}.</ref> At the beginning, it bore the name of "The Prisoner Kurken Yanikian Group".<ref>{{citation | title = Near East/South Asia Report | place = United States | publisher = Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Joint Publications Research Service | year = 1987 | page = 3}}.</ref> Because of this association, Yanikian's slayings have been characterized as "the opening salvo" of the armed attacks against the Turkish government and its agents.<ref>{{citation | last1 = Masih | first1 = Joseph R | last2= Krikorian | first2 = Robert O | title = Armenia: At the Crossroads |location = Amsterdam |publisher=Harwood Academic Publishers | year = 1999 | page = xxxi}}.</ref> | |||
| According to Khachig Tololyan, " not understood in the context of his life, of his real biography, or even in the context of the brief autobiography we can glean from his utterances. He is assigned a regulative biography, and understood through it... enlisted in a resonating roll-call that blurs history, context, and nuance."<ref name =rapo /> | |||
| ==Cultural references== | |||
| There is a conversation between the Brano and Gavra from ]'s ''Liberation Movements'' dedicated to Yanikian's person:<br /> | |||
| —"Who's Gourgen Yanikian?" Gavra asked.<br /> | |||
| —"American citizen, Armenian descent. Two years ago he invited the Turkish consul general and the consul to lunch at the Baltimore Hotel in Santa Barbara, California. He shot them both with a Luger. Killed them."<ref>{{citation | title = Liberation Movements | first = Olen | last = Steinhauer | publisher = Macmillan | year = 2007 | page = 43}}.</ref> | |||
| ==Bibliography== | |||
| ===in English=== | |||
| * {{citation | title = The Triumph of Judas Iscariot | place = Los Angeles | publisher = Research Publ. | year = 1950}}, 254 pp. | |||
| * {{citation | title = Harem Cross: A Novel of the Near-East | place = New York | publisher = Exposition | year = 1953}}, 223 p. | |||
| * {{citation | title = The Resurrected Christ: A Novel | place = New York | publisher = Exposition | year = 1955}}, 141 pp. | |||
| * {{citation | title = The Voice of an American | year = 1960 | publisher = Society for the Science of Living | asin = B0007FZ3L4}}, 147 pp. | |||
| * {{citation | title = Mirror in the Darkness | year = 1966 | first2 = Helen | last2 = Rettig | place = New York | publisher = Exposition}}, 197 pp. | |||
| ===in Armenian=== | |||
| * {{citation | title = Purpose and Truth (memoirs written from prison) | place = Yerevan | publisher = Tigran Mets | year = 1999}}. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| {{reflist|2}} | |||
| ==Further reading== | |||
| *{{citation | title = Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice | first = Michael | last = Bobelian | publisher = Simon & Schuster | year = 2009 | ISBN = 1-4165-5725-3}}. | |||
| *{{citation | title = Sentinel of Truth: Gourgen Yanikian and the Struggle Against the Denial of the Armenian Genocide | first = Tigran | last = Kalaydjian | publisher = SBPRA | year = 2012 | ISBN = 978-1-62212-995-9}}. | |||
| ==External links== | |||
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| {{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ]. --> | |||
| | NAME = Yanikian, Gourgen | |||
| | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | |||
| | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Armenian engineer | |||
| | DATE OF BIRTH = December 24, 1895 | |||
| | PLACE OF BIRTH = ], ] | |||
| | DATE OF DEATH = March 27, 1984 | |||
| | PLACE OF DEATH = | |||
| }} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Yanikian, Gourgen}} | |||
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