YEREVAN (Armenpress)-A monument dedicated to Armenian national hero Soghomon Tehlirian will be erected in Yerevan in the coming month. The statue is the work of famous sculptor Levon Tokmajian.
On March 15–1921–Tehlirian assassinated Talaat Pasha in Berlin as an act of vengeance for the murder of his family and nation. Talaat was the Minister of Interior under the Young Turk regime of Ottoman Turkey–and was one of the leading figures in organizing the premeditated–systematic extermination of more than 1.5 million Armenia’s in 1915.
After World War I–the Military Tribunal in Constantinople tried individual Young Turks for war crimes. It found Talaat and the other leaders of Ottoman Turkey guilty of "crimes against humanity" and sentenced them to death. Talaat fled to Germany with Enver Pasha and other Young Turk leaders to escape prosecution in 1918.
As part of the ARF’s "Operation Nemesis," Armenia’s found many of the escaped criminals in Europe and Central Asia and served the cause of justice–since the courts had failed to do so.
During Tehlirian’s trial in Germany–an initially hostile German public and jury discovered the horrors for which Talaat had been responsible; Tehlirian–who had readily accepted his responsibility for the assassination–was acquitted by the courts because of the overwhelming evidence provided about the Armenian Genocide.
Since Turkey was an ally of Germany in both world wars–in 1943 the Nazis returned Talaat’s remains to Turkey–where he was buried with great ceremony.
