Soghomon Tehlirian
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Soghomon Tehlirian 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.
Tehlirian in 1921
Soghomon (right), Sahak, and Misak Tehlirian (brothers) as volunteers in the Russian army
Soghomon Tehlirian monument on his grave in Ararat Cemetery in Fresno, California (erected in 1969). The monument incorrectly listed his date of birth as April 15, 1896 (pictured in 2009).
The renovated Soghomon Tehlirian monument in 2022. As of March 2022, the cemetery's website still listed the incorrect birthdate.
Assassination of Talaat Pasha
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On 15 March 1921, Armenian student Soghomon Tehlirian assassinated Talaat Pasha—former grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire and the main architect of the Armenian genocide—in Berlin. At his trial, Tehlirian argued, "I have killed a man, but I am not a murderer"; the jury acquitted him.
Courtroom during the trial
The corpses of Armenians beside a road, a common sight along deportation routes
Talaat Pasha
Russian soldiers pictured in the former Armenian village of Sheykhalan (modern day Eğirmeç) near Muş, 1915