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The "Trial of Soghomon Tehlirian" was a sensationalized trial of Soghomon Tehlirian for the assassination of the former Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha. The assassination was carried out in the Charlottenburg District of Berlin, Germany in broad daylight and in the presence of many witnesses on March 15, 1921.
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Defense
Tehlirian was defended by three defence attorneys, including Dr. Kurt Niemeyer, professor of Law at Cologne University.
Tehlirian was present at the scene and had withessed his sisters being raped and his brother beheaded. Tehlirian was then left on a pile of corpses for dead. He later managed to escape.
The defense attorneys made no attempt to deny the fact that Tehlirian had killed a man. It took the jury slightly over an hour to render a verdict of "not guilty". Tehlirian was tried and acquitted of all charges by the German court.
The trial examined not only Tehlirian’s actions but also Tehlirian's conviction that Talaat Pasha was the main author of the Armenian Genocide.
The "not guilty" verdict of the jury was based on the account of Tehlirian's experience during the Genocide.
Significance
The trial was an important influence on Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who found it interesting that while Tehlirian was being tried for killing one man, someone who killed more than a million men could not be brought to justice under the international law of the time.
Art
The French film "Mayrig" (1992, dir. Henri Verneuil) depicts Tehlirian (actor Denis Podalydès) and some events related to his trial.
The Turkish film Blood on the Wall is a highly fictional depiction of the Tehlirian's trial.
Notes
- ^ Peter, Balakian (2004). The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response. New York: Perennial. p. 345.
...he was acquitted on grounds of what today would be termed temporary insanity, when the jury heard the account of his experience in the Armenian Genocide"
- "Trial of Soghomon Tehlirian—First Afternoon". Armeniapedia. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
- Power, Samantha (2003). A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Harper Perennial. p. 17.
While Tehlirian awaited trial in Berlin, Raphael Lemkin, a twenty-one- year-old Polish Jew studying linguistics at the University of Lvov, came upon a short news item on Talaat's assassination in the local paper. Lemkin was intrigued and brought the case to the attention of one of his professors. Lemkin asked why the Armenians did not have Talaat arrested for the massacre. The professor said there was no law under which he could be arrested... "It is a crime for Tehlirian to kill a man, but it is not a crime for his oppressor to kill more than a million men?" Lemkin asked. "This is most inconsistent."
References
- Soghomon Tʻēhlirean, 2006, "The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian", by Center for Armenian Remembrance ISBN 0-9777153-1-0