Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

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Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia Հայաստանի ազատագրութեան հայ գաղտնի բանակ‎
Flag of the ASALA
Dates of operation	1975[1] to 1986[2]
Leader	Hagop Hagopian[3]
Motives	"To compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland."[1]
Active region(s)	Turkey, United States, Lebanon, Western Europe, Armenia, and Middle East.
Ideology	Marxism-Leninism, Greater Armenia
Major actions	Assassination of a number of Turkish diplomats and their relatives. Bombing of Turkish, French and Swiss targets for varying motives. Several minor bombing attacks against US airline offices in Western Europe.
Notable attacks	Armed attack and bombing of the Esenboğa International Airport, Ankara.[4] Bombing of Turkish airline counter at Orly Airport (Paris).[1]
Status	Dissolved

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a Marxist-Leninist militant^[5] organization, that operated from 1975 to 1986.^[6] The group also operated under other names such as The Orly Group and the 3 October Organization.^[7] The stated intention of ASALA was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland".^[8]

The territory to be ceded would be the area promised to the Armenians at the never-ratified Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 by US President Woodrow Wilson, "Wilsonian Armenia".^[7] ASALA was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States in 1980s.^[8] The group's mottos were "The armed struggle and right political line are the way to Armenia", "Viva the revolutionary solidarity of oppressed people!"^[9]

Contents 1 Background 2 Attacks 2.1 Reactions 2.2 Counteroffensive 3 Dissolution 4 References

[edit] Background

ASALA was founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War by Hagop Hagopian (Harutiun Tagushian), pastor Rev. James Karnusian^[10] and Kevork Ajemian,^[11] a prominent contemporary writer, with the help of sympathetic Palestinians.^[12] At the beginning, it bore the name of "The Prisoner Kurken Yanikian Group".^[13] Consisting primarily of Lebanese-born Armenians of the Diaspora (whose parents and/or grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide), the organization followed a theoretical model based on leftist ideology.^[14] The apex of group's structure was the General Command of the People of Armenia (VAN).^[15] The group's activities were primarily assassinations of Turkish diplomats and politicians in Western Europe, in the United States and the Middle East.^[12] Their first acknowledged killing was the assassination of the Turkish diplomat, Daniş Tunalıgil, in Vienna on October 22, 1975. A failed attack in Geneva on October 3, 1980, in which two Armenian militants were injured resulted in a new nickname for the group, the 3 October Organization. The ASALA's eight point manifesto was published in 1981.

ASALA, trained in the Beirut camps of Palestine Liberation Organization, is the best known of the guerilla groups responsible for assassinations of at least 36 Turkish diplomats.^[16]

[edit] Attacks

According to the MIPT website, there had been 84 incidents involving ASALA leaving 46 dead and 299 injured, including the following:^[3]

• February 16, 1976 in Turkish Embassy in Beirut, Oktar Cirit was killed.
• October 12, 1979 in Turkish Embassy in the Hague, Ahmet Benler, the son of the Ambassador Özdemir Benler, was killed (This attack was one of the attacks co-claimed by JCAG.
• July 31, 1980 in Turkish Embassy in Athens, Galip Özmen and his 14 year old daughter Neslihan were killed in the Turkish consulate. Galip Özmen's wife Sevil Özmen and their son Kaan survived the attack with injuries.
• December 29, 1980 in Madrid, a Spanish journalist, assistant director of the "Pueblo" newspaper, José Antonio Gurriarán was accidentally injured during an October 3 group attack. Then Gurriarán was interested what the group's purposes were; he found and interviewed ASALA members. In 1982 his "La Bomba" book was published, dedicated to the Armenian cause and Armenian militant's struggle.^[17]
• March 4, 1981 in the Turkish Embassy in Paris, Reşat Moralı was killed and Tecelli Arı was injured.
• June 9, 1981 in the Turkish Consulate in Geneva, Mehmet Savaş Yergüz was killed.
• September 24, 1981 in Turkish Consulate in Paris, 56 Turks were held hostage in the embassy by ASALA militants (none of the hostages were harmed), Turkish guard Cemal Özen was killed. ASALA members demanded the Turkish government free Armenian political prisoners within 12 hours and fly them to Paris. After 15 hours they surrendered peacefully requesting political asylum from the French government.^[18]
• April 28, 1984 in Turkish Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Işık Yönder was killed.

ASALA's most criticized attack was on August 7, 1982 in Ankara at Esenboğa International Airport, when its members targeted both diplomats and non-diplomat civilians for the first time. Two militants opened fire in a crowded passenger waiting room. One of the shooters took more than 20 hostages while the second was apprehended by police. Altogether, nine people died and 82 were injured. The arrested militant Levon Ekmekjian condemned the ASALA in the aftermath of the attack and appealed to other members to leave and stop the violence. The Esenboga attack also precipitated a split in the group over tactics, between the Nationalists (ASALA-Militant) led by Hagopian and the 'Popular Movement' (ASALA-Mouvement Révolutionnaire) led by Monte Melkonian. While Melkonian's faction insisted on attacks strictly against Turkish officials and the Turkish government, Hagopian's group disregarded the losses of unintended victims and regularly executed dissenting members. On August 10, 1982, Artin Penik a Turk of Armenian descent, set himself on fire in protest of this attack.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Prominent Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan in 1983 wrote "Its raining my sonny" poem dedicated to the memory of ASALA member Ekmekjian.^[23]

On July 15, 1983, the ASALA carried out another attack at the Orly Airport near Paris, in which 8 people were killed. The attack resulted in a split in ASALA, between those individuals who carried it out, called the "Orly Group," and those who believed the attack to be counter productive.^[24] Afterwards, French forces promptly arrested those involved.^[25] Moreover, this attack eliminated the suspected secret agreement that the French socialist government made with ASALA, in which the government would allow ASALA to use France as a base of operations in exchange for refraining from launching attacks on French soil. Belief in this suspected agreement was further bolstered after "Interior Minister Gaston Defferre called [ASALA's] cause "just," and four Armenians arrested for taking hostages at the Turkish Embassy in September 1981 were given light sentences."^[26]

[edit] Reactions

Continuous attacks prompted Turkey to accuse Cyprus, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and the Soviet Union of provoking or possibly funding the ASALA.^[12] Although they publicly distanced themselves from the ASALA,^[12] Turkey's Armenian community came under attack by Turkish nationalists in reaction to the group's actions. This became apparent after the assassination of Ahmet Benler on October 12, 1979 by Armenian militants in the Hague. The reaction to the attack led to the bombing of the church of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate in Istanbul on October 19 in retaliation.^[27] In 1980, the Turkish government arrested Armenian priest Fr. Manuel Yergatian at the Istanbul airport for the alleged possession of maps that indicated Armenian territory within modern day Turkey and was sentenced to 14 years in prison for possible ties with ASALA. Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience, concluding that the evidence against him was baseless.^[27]

According to Tessa Hofmann, Turkish officials frequently used the accusation of collaboration with the ASALA and foreign Armenian circles to incriminate extreme left-wing Turkish opposition groups.^[27]

In April, 2000 the opening ceremony of "In Memory of killed ASALA commandos" monument took place at Armenian military pantheon with participation of Greek anti-fascist resistance leader Manolis Glezos and other special guests.^[28]

[edit] Counteroffensive

After the ASALA attack against the Esenboğa International Airport in August 1982 the then President of Turkey Kenan Evren issued a decree for the elimination of ASALA. The task was given to the National Intelligence Organization's (Turkish: Millî İstihbarat Teşkilâtı, MİT) Foreign Operations Department. Evren's own daughter, a member of the MİT, ran the operation together with Foreign Intelligence Department chief Metin (Mete) Günyol, and Istanbul region director Nuri Gündeş.^[29][30]

Levon Ekmekjian was captured and placed in Ankara's Mamak Prison. He was told that he had to choose between confessing and being executed. After being promised that his comrades would not be harmed, he revealed how the ASALA worked to a team lead by MİT's Presidential Liaison and Evren's son-in-law, Erkan Gürvit. He was executed nevertheless.^[29][31]

In the early Spring of 1983 two teams were sent to France and Lebanon. Günyol tapped contract killer Abdullah Çatlı, who had just finished serving a prison sentence in Switzerland for drug trafficking, to lead the French contingent. Günyol says he did not reveal his identity to Çatlı, who referred to him as "Colonel", thinking Günyol used to be a soldier.^[32]

A second French unit was assembled under MİT operative Sabah Ketene. The Lebanese contingent, consisting only of MİT operatives and members of the “Special Warfare Department” (special forces), was led by MİT officer Hiram Abas.^[31]

Çatlı's team was ineffectual. The bomb planted in Ara Toranyan's car on 22 March 1983 did not explode. A follow-up attempt also failed. Toranyan said they had planted the bomb in the wrong car. Likewise, Henri Papazyan's car bomb on 1 May 1984 did not explode. Çatlı claimed credit for killing Hagop Hagopian, however he was in a French prison (again, on narcotics charges) at the time of the attack. Papazyan is now believed to have been killed as a result of infighting. The second French team (led by Ketene) did carry out some attacks (which Çatlı also claimed credit for), such as the 1984 Alfortville monument and Salle Pleyel concert room attacks. It is unknown whether the Lebanese contingent did anything at all.^[33]

After the ASALA counteroffensives, Çatlı gravitated to the police force, under the leadership of Mehmet Ağar. Meanwhile, the MİT established its own Counter-Terrorism department, which considered Çatlı and Ağar competitors. The MİT attempted to purge the two in an "accident"; the Susurluk car crash. Ağar was forewarned so he was able to save his life by not taking the car that Çatlı died in.

[edit] Dissolution

With the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 the group lost much of its organization and support. Sympathetic Palestinian organizations including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) withdrew their support and passed materials to the French intelligence services in 1983, detailing ASALA operatives. The last attack, on 19 December 1991, targeted the bullet-proof limousine carrying the Turkish Ambassador to Budapest. The ambassador was not injured in the attack, which was claimed by ASALA in Paris.^[18]

ASALA's founder Hagop Hagopian was assassinated on a sidewalk in an affluent neighborhood in Athens, Greece on April 28, 1988. His assailants, Hovsep A., Vartan G., Garabed K., and Albert "Sultan-Minas", were all former ASALA members and lieutenants of Hagopian. His body was riddled with several bullets while he was walking with two women at 4:30 in the morning.^[34] Tarakchian died of cancer in 1980. Assassinations of former members continued in Armenia into the late 1990s.^[35]

According to National Intelligence Agency official Nuri Gündeş, ASALA was dissolved after its financial backing was withdrawn by the Armenian diaspora after the 1983 Orly airport attack.^[36]

[edit] References

v • d • e Defunct Armed Armenian Organizations Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)  • Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide (JCAG)  • Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA) ASALA attacks  • JCAG attacks  • ARA attacks