Soghomon Tehlirian

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Lore & Background

Soghomon Tehlirian was born on April 2, 1896, in the village of Bagarich (present-day Çadırkaya, Tercan, Turkey), in the Erzurum vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, and raised in Erzincan. He received his initial education at the Protestant elementary school in Erzinjan, then graduated from the Getronagan (Central) Lyceum of Constantinople and went to study engineering in Serbia, with plans to continue in Germany. In June 1914 he was in Valjevo, Serbia; that fall he made his way to Russia and joined a volunteer unit on the Caucasus Front against the Turks. According to *History's Great Untold Stories*, in June 1915 the Ottoman local police ordered the deportation of all Armenians in Erzinjan, and Tehlirian lost 85 family members to the genocide. However, his son stated in 2016 that Tehlirian's mother and older brother Vasken died, but that Tehlirian did not have a sister, his father was fighting in Russia, and his other two brothers were in Serbia.

Reader's Guide

After the war, Tehlirian went to Constantinople and killed Harutian Mgrditichian, who had worked for the Ottoman secret police and helped compile the list of Armenian intellectuals deported on April 24, 1915. This killing convinced Operation Nemesis operatives to entrust him with the assassination of Talaat Pasha. In mid-1920, the Nemesis organization paid for Tehlirian to travel to the United States, where Garo briefed him that the death sentences against major perpetrators had not been carried out. Tehlirian received photographs of seven leading CUP leaders and departed for Europe, obtaining a visa to Berlin as a mechanical engineering student on December 2. He found Talaat's address at 4 Hardenbergstraße in Charlottenburg, rented an apartment nearby, and studied his routine. On March 15, 1921, he shot Talaat in the nape of the neck with a single 9mm parabellum round from a Luger P08 pistol, in broad daylight. He was arrested immediately, as his handlers had told him not to run. At trial, the defense made no attempt to deny the killing, instead focusing on the influence of the genocide on Tehlirian's mental state. Tehlirian claimed, 'I do not consider myself guilty because my conscience is clear…I have killed a man. But I am not a murderer.' He described a dream in which his mother's corpse arose and said, 'You saw Talaat and you did not avenge your mother's, father's, brothers', and sisters' murders? You are no longer my son.' The jury took slightly over an hour to return a verdict of 'not guilty.' The trial influenced Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who reflected, 'Tehlirian acted as the self-appointed legal officer for the conscience of mankind. But can a man appoint himself to mete out justice?' German reactions were mixed; journalist Emil Ludwig wrote, 'Only when a society of nations has organized itself as the protector of international order will no Armenian killer remain unpunished.'

Did You Know?

• Tehlirian killed Harutian Mgrditichian, who helped compile the list of Armenian intellectuals deported on April 24, 1915, before being entrusted with Talaat Pasha's assassination.
• He shot Talaat Pasha with a single 9mm parabellum round from a Luger P08 pistol in broad daylight on March 15, 1921.
• During his trial, Tehlirian described a dream where his mother's corpse scorned him for not avenging his family, which the defense used to argue his mental state.
• The jury took slightly over an hour to find Tehlirian not guilty.
• His trial inspired Raphael Lemkin to campaign for a law allowing genocide to be prosecuted under universal jurisdiction.