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A survivor of the Armenian
Genocide, assassinated Talaat Pasha in Berlin in
1921. Talaat, Minister of the Interior and
mastermind of the Genocide, had fled Turkey to seek
refuge in Germany where he continued to labor for
Pan-Turkism. He had been tried in abstentia by the
Turkish authorities and sentenced to death for the
atrocities he planned and carried out, but no
official effort had been made to apprehend him and
bring him to justice.
After Talaat's assassination in Berlin, Soghomon
Tehlirian, who admitted committing the murder, was
given a jury trial. During the two-day trial, expert
witnesses and eye-witnesses testified not only about
the murder itself, but about the details of the
Armenian Genocide and Tehlirian's physical and
mental condition as the only survivor in his family.
The jury acquitted Tehlirian of the crime. He
eventually moved to the United States and lived out
his years in San Francisco. |