Soghomon Tehlirian

Soghomon Tehlirian
Tehlirian in 1921
Born(1896-04-02)April 2, 1896
Nerkin Pakarich [hy] (Բագառիճ), Erzurum Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Çadırkaya, Tercan, Turkey)[1]
DiedMay 23, 1960(1960-05-23) (aged 64)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Resting placeArarat Cemetery, Fresno, California
Known forAssassination of Talaat Pasha

Soghomon Tehlirian (Armenian: Սողոմոն Թեհլիրեան; April 2, 1896 – May 23, 1960) was an Armenian revolutionary and soldier who assassinated Talaat Pasha, the former Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, in Berlin on March 15, 1921. He was entrusted to carry out the assassination after having earlier killed Harutian Mgrditichian, who had worked for the Ottoman secret police and helped compile the list of Armenian intellectuals who were deported on April 24, 1915.

Talaat's assassination was a part of Operation Nemesis, a revenge plan by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation against members of the Ottoman Imperial Government responsible for the Armenian genocide during World War I. Talaat Pasha had been convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in the Turkish courts-martial of 1919–20, and was viewed as the main orchestrator of the genocide. After a two-day trial Tehlirian was found not guilty by a German court, and freed.

Tehlirian is considered a national hero by Armenians.[2][3]

  1. ^ "Nişanyan Yeradları".
  2. ^ Vartabedian, Sarah (2007). Commemoration of an Assassin: Representing the Armenian Genocide (PDF) (Master of Arts). University of North Carolina. p. 7. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  3. ^ Von Voss, Huberta (2007). Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the Contemporary World. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 6. ISBN 9781845452575.