Gourgen Yanikian
Kourken Megerdich Yanigian (Armenian: Գուրգեն Մկրտիչ Եանիկեան, December 24, 1895, Erzurum, Ottoman Armenia - March 27, 1984, USA) was an Armenian terrorist who killed two Turkish consular officials in California in 1973.[1] His stated purpose was "to demand justice" for the Armenian Genocide.[1]
Armenians hoped Yanigian's trial would provide a vehicle for proving the massacres in a court of law, while there were still surviving witnesses. Yanigian took the Armenian Genocide witness stand, accompanied by his friend and interpreter, Santa Barbaran Aram Saroyan, the uncle of famous author William Saroyan. Yanigian told of his 26 family members killed in the massacres, and how he watched in hiding as marauding Turks slit his brother's throat. Finally, he said that he killed the Turkish diplomats as representatives of the "government that had massacred his people".
He was sentenced to life in prison in July 1973 and paroled in 1984, over the objection of the Turkish government.[2]
After Yanigian's death, District Attorney David D. Minner wrote: "Looking back, I regret that I did not allow the genocide to be proven. Not because Yanigian should have gone free, but because history's darkest chapters - its genocides - should be exposed, so their horrors are less likely to be repeated".[2]
Books
in English
- The Triumph of Judas Iscariot, Los Angeles: Research Publ. Co., 1950, 254 p.
- The Resurrected Christ: A Novel, New York: Exposition, 1955, 141 p.
- Harem Cross: A Novel of the Near-East, 1953
- The Voice of an American, 1960
- Mirror in the Darkness, 1966
in Armenian
- Purpose and Justice (memoires from the prison), Yerevan, Tigran Mets Publ., 1999
Related pages
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Imprisoned Armenian Dies, New York Times, March 1, 1984
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Murder Will Out? District Attorney Regrets Not Allowing Genocide Testimony at Murder Trial, By David D. Minner // The Independent, Apr 2, 1998