Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide

Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) (Armenian: Հայկական Ցեղասպանութեան Արդարութեան Մարտիկներ, ՀՑԱՄ) was an Armenian militant organization which sought the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Republic of Turkey, and the establishment of an independent Armenia (including the eastern part of Turkey) from 1975 to 1987. JCAG conducted an international campaign of attacks, mainly in Europe and North America, targeting interests and representatives of Turkey.[1][2]

Affiliation with Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) was the military branch of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a left-wing Armenian nationalist and Pan-Armenian political party established in the 19th century, which at the time of sought the independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union.[3] The ARF was instrumental in the creation of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918, which existed for two years until it was annexed by the Soviet Union, the successor state of the Russian Empire which had previously ruled eastern Armenia. After the Soviets came to power, the ARF leadership was exiled, where the organization maintained its existence internationally through the Armenian diaspora.

The existence of JCAG was discovered in May 1976, when a member was killed by his own bomb in the headquarters of ARF in Paris.[4] It was confirmed when French political scientist Gaïdz Minassian was allowed to consult the archives of ARF for his doctoral thesis.[5] In several occasions, the official newspapers of ARF in the United States, France and Lebanon justified the "armed struggle" and published official communiqués of JCAG.[6][7] The party had used terrorism many times, both against the Ottoman Empire and Armenians opposed to the ARF, the most famous being Bedros Kapamciyan, mayor of Van, assassinated in December 1912, and archbishop Leon Tourian, assassinated in New York City on December 24, 1933.[8]

The legal branches of the ARF fundraised to pay the lawyer costs of arrested JCAG members, the most famous case being Harry Sassounian, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the Turkish general consul in Los Angeles.[9] According to Dashnak newspaper Asbarez (October 15, 1983), several dozens of thousands of Armenians (ARF sympathisers and militants) participated to the Sassounian solidarity groups. French ARF organized a demonstration in front of US consulate in Lyon, in protestation against Sassounian's arrest.[10] The ARF also supported Harutyun Krikor Levonian and Alexander Elbekyan, who were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for the assassination of Galip Balkar, Turkish ambassador to Yugoslavia, in Belgrade, and Max Hraïr Kilndjian, sentenced to two years imprisonment as an accessory in the attempted murder of the Turkish ambassador to Switzerland.[11]

In 1982, an attempt to bomb the building of Turkish consulate in Philadelphia was stopped by the FBI. The leader of the group and now the main leader of ARF in the United States, Vicken Hovsepian, was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, a sentence confirmed in appeal.[12] In January 2001, another leader of the American ARF, Mourad Topalian, was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment for illegal storing of weapons and explosives for JCAG.[13] JCAG's activities were concentrated in European and North American countries, targeting Turkish interests, mainly the assassination of Turkish diplomats.[14]

In 1983, the JCAG took the name of "Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA)", and like before, ARF-affiliated press published ARA communiqués as well as articles supporting its aims.[15] [16][17]

Every year the ARF organizes international ceremonies in honor of the five ARA members who attacked the Turkish embassy in Portugal, especially in Glendale, Los Angeles, in New Jersey, Beirut, Paris and Décines-Charpieu.[18][19] After three ARA perpetrators of attack against Turkish embassy in Ottawa were sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years, ARF attacked the verdict.[20]

Under the name of "Greek-Bulgarian-Armenian Front", the JCAG perpetrated two attacks in Australia: the bombing of Melbourne's Turkish consulate, for which ARF member Levon Demirian was sentenced and served 10 years in prison, and the bombing of a mail sorting facility in Brisbane, on January 19, 1987.[21][22]

Attacks

This is a list of attacks by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide:

References

  1. Starving Armenians: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After - Page 166 by Merrill D. Peterson
  2. Barry Rubin, Barry M. Rubin, Judith Colp Rubin, "Chronologies of modern terrorism, M.E. Sharpe, 2008, p. 68
  3. Francis P. Hyland, Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, pp. 61-62; Yves Ternon, La Cause arménienne, Paris: Le Seuil, 1983, p. 218; The Armenian Reporter, January 19, 1984, p. 1.
  4. Yves Ternon, p. 221
  5. Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2002, pp. 32-34 and 106-109.
  6. Asbarez, April 24, May 1st and 22, 1973; Haïastan, July 1981 and special issue on Sassounian affair, February 1984; The Armenian Weekly, August 21, September 17, December 10 and 24, 1983, January 14 and 28, 1984 and December 31, 1986.
  7. Haïastan, February and April–May, 1983
  8. Türkkaya Ataöv, "Procurement of Arms for Armenian Terrorists: Realities Based on Ottoman Documents", Heath W. Lowry, "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Armenian Terrorism: 'Threads of Continuity'" and Paul B. Henze, "The Roots of Armenian Violence", in International Terrorism and the Drug Connection, Ankara University Press, 1984, pp. 71-84 and 169-202; Michael M. Gunter, pp. 29-30 and 55; Houshamatyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Album-Atlas, volume I, Heroic Battles. 1890-1914, Los Angeles-Glendale: Next Day Color Printing, 2006, p. 7; Gaïdz Minassian, pp. 2 and 30-32; Louise Nalbandian, The Armenian Revolutionary Movement, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 1963, chapter VII; Kapriel Serope Papazian, Patriotism Perverted, Boston: Baikar Press, 1934, pp. 13-18 and 68-70; Rapport présenté au congrès socialiste international de Copenhague par le parti arménien "Dachnaktzoutioun", Genève, 1910, pp. 9 and 15-17; Jeremy Salt, The Unmaking of the Middle East, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: University of California Press, 2008, p. 59; Yves Ternon, pp. 124-125.
  9. Michael M. Gunter, "Pursuing the Just Cause of their People". A Study of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism, Westport-New York-London, Greenwood Press, 1986, pp. 70 and 74; "More Than $70 000 Raised for Hampig Sassounian Defense Effort", Asbarez, 25 février 2002.
  10. « Soutien à Sassounian (Lyon) », Haïastan (Paris), juin 1982, p. 6.
  11. Yves Ternon, pp. 223-224.
  12. "Court Finds Four Armenian Youth Guifly of '82 Attempt on Consulate", The Armenian Reporter, October 18, 1984; Verdict of appeal court
  13. Armenian Terrorists at Work in USA, NBC, 2005 ; http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/010205/archive_005996.htm
  14. Geopolitical and -Economic Changes in the Balkan Countries - Page 75 by Nicholas V. Gianaris
  15. Michael M. Gunter, pp. 56-61; Francis P. Hyland, p. 62; Gaïdz Minassian, p. 92; Global Terrorism Database.
  16. The Armenian Weekly, July 14, October 12 and November 19, 1984.
  17. Aram Khaligian, “The Necessities of Violence and National Culture in the Liberation Struggle,” The Armenian Weekly, 31 December 1986, p. 15; Haïastan, April and December 1985, December 1986.
  18. Gaïdz Minassian, op. cit., p. 93.
  19. The Armenian Weekly, February 6, 1984, pp. 6-7 ; "Lisbon 5 Commemoration and Ceremony for the Repose of Souls Held in Lebanon", Asbarez, July 27, 2004 ; "Sacrifice of Lisbon 5 Remembered at Glendale’s Saint Mary Church", Asbarez, July 27, 2008 ; "Community Remembers Sacrifice of Lisbon 5", Asbarez, August 1st, 2008 ; http://www.fra-france.com/index.php?page=article&id=55 ; http://www.fra-france.com/index.php?page=article&id=36 ; http://www.france-armenie.fr/agenda/agenda07b-2008.pdf
  20. Haïastan, December 1986.
  21. Police Life Magazine, December 2006.
  22. "Incident Summary for GTDID: 198611230005". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  23. Global Terrorism Database; Gaïdz Minassian, Guerre et terrorisme arméniens, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2002, p. 44; Michael M. Gunter, "Pursuing the Just Cause of their People. A Study of Contemporary Armenian Terrorism, Westport-New York-London, Greenwood Press, 1986, p. 68.
  24. Global Terrorism Database; Gaïdz Minassian, ibid.; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.
  25. Armenian Terrorism: the Past, the Present, the Prospects, Boulder-San Francisco-Oxford: Westview Press, 1991, p. 111; Assembly of Turkish American Associations, Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG terrorist Hampig Sassounian, 2010, pp. 36-37.
  26. Yves Ternon, La Cause arménienne, Paris: Le Seuil, 1983, p. 221 ; Armand Gaspard, Le Combat arménien, Lausanne: L’Âge d’homme, 1984, p. 75.
  27. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.
  28. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.
  29. Armenia. The Survival of a Nation, London-New York: Routledge, 1990, p. 380
  30. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.
  31. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.
  32. Francis P. Hyland, p. 153.
  33. "Incident Summary for GTDID: 198002060004". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  34. Comité de soutien à Max Kilndjian, Les Arméniens en cour d'assises. Terroristes ou résistants ?, Marseille: Parenthèse, 1982
  35. "Incident Summary for GTDID: 198004170023". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  36. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, p. 82
  37. Global Terrorism Database Assembly of Turkish American Associations, [Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG terrorist Hampig Sassounian http://www.ataa.org/reference/Supporting_Documents_Hampig_Sassounian.pdf], 2010, pp. 31-32.
  38. Global Terrorism Database Assembly of Turkish American Associations, [Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG terrorist Hampig Sassounian http://www.ataa.org/reference/Supporting_Documents_Hampig_Sassounian.pdf], 2010, p. 31.
  39. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, p. 69.
  40. Francis P. Hyland, pp. 164-165; Assembly of Turkish American Associations, [Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG terrorist Hampig Sassounian http://www.ataa.org/reference/Supporting_Documents_Hampig_Sassounian.pdf], pp. 36-37; Michael M. Gunter, p. 3.
  41. "Incident Summary for GTDID: 198111200002". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  42. Assembly of Turkish American Associations, [Report on Armenian Terrorism and JCAG terrorist Hampig Sassounian http://www.ataa.org/reference/Supporting_Documents_Hampig_Sassounian.pdf], p. 44.
  43. ; Michael M. Gunter, p. 69
  44. ATAA Assures California Prison Parole Board Denies Parole to Armenian Terrorist Sassounian, August 6, 2010.
  45. Francis P. Hyland, pp. 61-62 pp. 68 and 154; Michael M. Gunter, p. 82.
  46. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.; Francis P. Hyland, p. 193.
  47. "AROUND THE WORLD - Turkish Envoy in Lisbon Is Killed by Gunman - NYTimes.com". 8 June 1982. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  48. "Turk Wounded in June Attack By Armenian Terrorists Dies". 11 January 1983. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  49. Global Terrorism Database; Gaïdz Minassian, p. 77; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.
  50. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, ibid.; Gaïdz Minassian, p. 83.
  51. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, pp. 69-70 and 133.
  52. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, p. 69; Gaïdz Minassian, p. 92.
  53. Michael M. Gunter, pp. 58-59, 70 and 79; Gaïdz Minassian, pp. 90-93.
  54. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, pp. 62-63 and 69; Gaïdz Minassian, p. 92.
  55. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, pp. 62-63
  56. Global Terrorism Database; Michael M. Gunter, p. 69.
  57. Francis P. Hyland, pp. 69-70 and 221.
  58. Global Terrorism DatabasePolice Life Magazine, December 2006.
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