David Minier
Twice each year, my thoughts turn to the Armenian Genocide. On April 24,
the anniversary date of the 1915 massacres orchestrated by the Turkish
government. And on Jan. 27, when 45 years ago Gourgen Yanikian
assassinated two Turkish diplomats in Santa Barbara to avenge the
genocide.
Yanikian, age 78 and a former Fresno resident, was charged with murder, and I was his prosecutor.
The aging Armenian had
lured the diplomats to a cottage at Santa Barbara’s exclusive Biltmore
Hotel, promising gifts of art treasures for their government. Instead,
he pulled a Luger pistol from a hollowed out book and emptied it at
them. He then called the reception desk, announced he had killed “two
evils,” and sat calmly on the patio awaiting arrest.
In 1921, a German jury had acquitted Soghoman Tehlirian of
murdering Talaat Pasha, the Turkish official most responsible for the
genocide. Tehlirian later settled in Fresno, and his tomb is the
centerpiece of Fresno’s Masis Ararat Cemetery.
Talaat had been
sentenced in absentia to death for “crimes against humanity,” and had
fled to Germany. Tehlirian found Talaat and shot him to death on a
Berlin street. As planned, Tehlirian pled not guilty, and his trial was
reported worldwide.
‘They simply had to let him go’
Tehlirian testified
about the rape and murder of his sisters, the beheading of his mother,
and the killings of his brothers. It took a jury less than two hours to
find Tehlirian not guilty. The New York Times headline read, “They
Simply Had To Let Him Go.”
Fifty-two years later,
in a Santa Barbara courtroom, Yanikian sought his “Armenian Nuremberg,”
and an acquittal. As prosecutor, it was my duty to convict him.
The trial proceeded without personal rancor. I have
a photograph of Yanikian, his attorneys and me, standing together,
smiling, during a court recess. And another, with the inscription “to
our admired and respected District Attorney and friend.”
Yanikian’s attorneys
told the judge they wanted to call as witnesses eminent historians and
elderly Armenians who had survived the genocide. And survivors were
available. Bused daily from Southern California, they sat silently in
the courtroom among family members, ready to recount unspeakable
horrors.
One of Yanikian’s
attorneys, Vasken Minasian, asked me to allow the testimony. He gave me a
copy of “The Cross and the Crescent,” about the Tehlirian trial. In it
he wrote: “The tragedy in Santa Barbara has brought destiny and God to
your doorstep,” and he urged me to “bring forth an indictment against
genocide.” He added, “You stand to become an immortal symbol of justice
around the world.”
This was heady stuff, and I faced a dilemma: to allow a parade of eye-witnesses to the genocide, risking an acquittal, or to block
the evidence to obtain a conviction. I knew such evidence would likely
lead to “jury nullification,” where a jury disregards the law and
acquits for a perceived greater justice, as the Tehlirian jury had done.
I took the safer path,
and the judge sustained my objection to the witnesses. But I could not
in good conscience block the testimony of Yanikian himself, no matter
how it inflamed the jury. He commanded the witness stand for six days and described in detail, without objection, the Armenian genocide.
Turks slaughter 27 family members
Yanikian told how, as a
boy of 8, he watched marauding Turks slit his brother’s throat, and of
the slaughter of 26 other family members. He testified in Armenian,
translated by Aram Saroyan, former Fresno grape shipper, San Francisco
attorney, and uncle of author William Saroyan.
Jurors were moved to
tears by Yanikian’s testimony, but they were denied the corroborating
testimony the defense hoped would sway their decision. The Yanikian
jury, unlike the Tehlirian jury, followed the law and gave me what I
asked: two first-degree murder verdicts. There would be no
nullification. Yanikian was sentenced to life in prison. He was granted
compassionate release to a care home in 1984, over objection of the
Turkish government, and died of cancer two months later.
Yanikian failed to get
his Armenian Nuremberg, and “The Forgotten Genocide,” denied to this day
by the Turkish government, was never proved in a court of law by the
testimony of eyewitness survivors.
Looking back, I regret I hadn’t
the courage to allow such evidence, and trust the jury to follow the
law. And attorney Minasian’s words still haunt me: “… bring forth an
indictment against genocide.” History’s darkest chapters – its genocides
– should be fully exposed, so their horrors are less likely to be
repeated.
Notwithstanding Turkish
denials, the historical evidence of the Armenian genocide is so abundant
that 48 American states, and at least 25 nations, have memorialized and
condemned it.
Valadao pushes resolution on genocide
Not so the American
government. For years, Congressional Resolutions condemning the genocide
have been defeated after intense pressure from Turkey, where American
military bases exist at Turkish pleasure.
Passage of the current
version, House Resolution 220, “would be a critical step towards
ensuring an event like the Armenian genocide never takes place again,”
says Hanford Congressman David Valadao, a co-sponsor.
But H.R. 220 has
languished in the Foreign Affairs Committee for 10 months, and chances
for passage are remote. The House will doubtless take the safer path, as
I did in the Yanikian trial.
And once again, truth will fall victim to expedience.
"Fresno Bee," January 26, 2018
Hola Vartán, de lo mejor que has subido, tratá de traducirlo y subirlo a facebook, como mínimo.
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