The year 1915 saw Turkey set out to destroy the Armenian people. Led by the three leaders of the Young Turk Party, Enver Pasha, Djemal Pasha, and Talaat Pasha, the Turkish nation began the cruelest series of massacres ever conceived in the sickest of minds. According to Henry Morganthau, United States Ambassador to Turkey at the time, the one person who was the driving force behind these massacres was Talaat Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Turkey.

After the Turkish defeat in WWI, Talaat Pasha fled and went into hiding. In 1919, the Turkish military court tried Talaat en abstentia and condemned him to death.

In 1887, a son was born to the Armenian people, his name Soghomon Tehlirian. During WWI he lost his entire family. His brother's skull was split open before his eyes. His aged parents were taken, one night, from their village to the desert where they perished. Deep scares were left in Soghomon Tehlirian's young mind. He swore to revenge the wholesale destruction of his family and people. He swore to kill Talaat Pasha.

Soghomon Tehlirian, an agent of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, started out on his search for Talaat in 1918. He traveled throughout Turkey and Europe. His wanderings led him to Berlin. In 1921, after three long years, he located Talaat Pasha, chief architect of the massacres of our people. Talaat was living with his wife under the assumed name of Sali Bey. After following the Turkish dog for several weeks, young Tehlirian walked up to Talaat on March 15, 1921 and tapped him on the shoulder. He pretended to be an acquaintance of Talaat's at first. He then withdrew a revolver and shot Talaat in the head. Talaat fell to the street, dead! Soghomon Tehlirian, at the age of twenty four had accomplished his mission.

A mob proceeded to beat up Tehlirian and nearly lynch him. Tehlirian, in his broken German, was heard to say, "We are both foreigners. This has nothing to do with you." He was arrested by the German police. In the ensuing days Soghomon Tehlirian was quoted as saying, "It is not I who am the murderer, it is he. Ever since (the massacres) I have lived only to revenge the death not only of my own mother and father, but also the persecution and massacres of the Armenian people, of whom Talaat Pasha was the wholesale murderer." He also said, "It fills me with happiness to know that when my compatriots hear of his death they will be proud of the deed of their fellow-countrymen."

On June 2, 1921 Soghomon Tehlirian was tried for the murder of Talaat Pasha in a German court of law. He was defended by some of Berlin's best criminal lawyers. The actual defense was built around Talaat's deeds, not Tehlirian's. While testifying Tehlirian told of seeing a vision of his dead mother but two weeks before the assassination. He said,

"I am not guilty because my conscience is clean. A fortnight before this deed the scenes of the massacre of Erzerum reappeared to me. I saw my mother, brother and sisters lying as corpses. Suddenly the dead body of my mother stood up, poalced itself before me, and said 'You utterly different, You are therefore not my son.' I then became suddenly awake and reached a decision to kill Talaat."

At one point during the trial Soghomon Tehlirian emotionally said, "Rather will I die then again live through the black days when my mother and sisters were outraged and murdered and my father and brother were butchered." On June 3, 1921 Soghomon Tehlirian was acquitted by the German court.

At the age of twenty-four, Soghomon Tehlirian reached immortality, never to be forgotten by his grateful people. He passed away on May 23, 1960 in San Francisco at the age of sixty-three. His casket, draped with the Tricolor, was laid to rest at Ararat Cemetery. Dr. Yervant Khatanessian, ARF Bureau representative, delivered the following eulogy which best describes one of the greatest sons of the Armenian people. Dr. Khatanessian said,

"Quiet, as obedient and good as a dutiful child, retiring and modest, he was a person who had the good fortune of others close to his heart. While still a young man, he joined the forces of Antranig and fought against the Turk. The scenes he saw in ravaged Armenia filled this mild man with the seed of revenge. He vowed to avenge his stricken people. And thus this gentle, friendly boy found himself seething with fire and determination. He became a lion, and finally, one day in the streets of distant Berlin, he requited this soul - he slew the beast Talaat... Today, we are entrusting Soghomon's remains to Mother Earth, but we are not burying him. He was the light, and the light cannot be buried away. We are merely seeing the great hero off to the hall of immortality."

Mr. Puzant Granian said that, "In old Greece, the grateful people would place a laurel wreathe over the heads of their hero dead. We Armenians place the Tricolor over our warriors. Thus we have placed our flag over this man, who above all deserves such a national honor."

The story of Soghomon Tehlirian is symbolic of the Armenian people. It shows that we will always resist tyrants and continue to fight back until we have achieved our goal - a free, independent, and united Armenia.

Works Cited

• Avakian, Lindy V. (1989). The Cross and the Crescent. USC Press
• Yeghiayan, Vartkes (2006). The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian. Center for Armenian Remembrance. ISBN 0977715310