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.
