The Executioners

By George Mouradian

The Executioners is a book that covers several Armenian related
subjects. The main theme is about the executioners who assassinated
the Ottoman Turkish perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide and how
they went about accomplishing their assignments. The other contents
include a short history of Armenia, the events of Bank Ot

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643982984

George Mouradian

George Mouradian by profession is an engineer, yet also a history enthusiast.  He is an American born Armenian who has researched Armenian history since his high school days, taught and was principal of Armenian Sunday School classes, lectured on Armenian subject, and has been very active in the Armenian community affairs.  He taught Reliability Engineering and Quality Management at the American University of Armenian in Yerevan, Armenia.  He has traveled and written on Historic Armenia.  He has retired from the active work force, but is currently assisting various organizations in the field of quality and reliability engineering.  His principle aim in the engineering consulting area is to have companies make more reliable products and to provide better service.  His principle aim in Armenianism is to encourage Armenian youth to learn more about their heritage, history, and culture and to be active in Armenian affairs. He wrote Never To Die because he felt Armenian youth needed a book that relates to their history and culture.  He published the book in novel form to make the reading more engaging.  His previous book, Armenian InfoText, has done this to some extent in that the text has provided a simple to read mini-encyclopedia.  Never To Die has a similar goal.

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The Executioners

Copyright © 2019 by MAG and Associates/George Mouradian

ISBN: 978-1-64398-298-4

Includes bibliographical references and table of contents:

1. Reference on History of Armenian

2. Bank Ottoman Escapade and Founding of Operation Nemesis

3. The Executioners of the Turkish Ottoman Perpetrators of the Armenian Genocides

4. Armenia Assailants 1973 to 1994

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for profit without written permission from the publisher or author. Any use of the contents on this book is hereby approved for academic or other non-profit activities providing this source is cited. For information address:

MAG and Associates

4489 Marcello Drive

Commerce Twp., MI 48382

Telephone [phone]

Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

Printed in the United States of America

LitFire LLC

1-800-511-9787

www.litfirepublishing.com

[e-mail]

Contents

Dedication

Also by George Mouradian

Forward

Armenia

Bank Ottoman and the Founding of Operation Nemesis

Aram Yerganian and Misak Giragorian

Soghomon Tehlirian

Misak Torlakian

Arshavir Shiragian

Arshavir Shiragian and Aram Yerganian

Stepan Dzaghigian

Hagop Melkumian

What Else Is Going On?

Armenian Avengers from 1973 to 1994

Epilogue

Time Line of Major Events (1887-2018)*

Dedication

To the dozens of Armenian executioners who risked their lives to assassinate the Ottoman Turkish perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide and prayerfully to the leaders of the Republic of Armenian to lead the country to prosperity and success.

Also by George Mouradian

Armenian InfoText, a mini-encyclopedia

Handbook of QS-9000 Tooling and Equipment Certification

The Quality Revolution: A History of the Quality Movement

NEVER TO DIE: A Historic Novel about Armenia and the Quest for Noah’s Ark

Your Journey Into Armenia

Notable Armenian Sayings and Family Relationships

Guideline to Your Magical Marriage

Evils of the World

The First Crusade

One Hundred Years of Denial

The New Religion: What’s Going on in the Sports’ World

Detente: Will the World Ever have Peace?

Forward

The Executioners is based on the basic history of Armenia and the assassination of Turkish perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide during World War I. Documents related to this scenario were uncovered by Aaron Sachaklian’s daughter Arpena, then by her daughter, Mariam Mesrobian MacCurdy. In addition to the original documents, books and inputs for the Armenian executioners who assassinated the Turks and Azeris who masterminded and carried on the Armenian Genocide were researched to a great extent. The book depicts the role of the executioners together with their personalities, strategies, dedication, and methods on how they went about to complete their assignments under the direction of Operation Nemesis and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Short descriptions are also provided for the perpetrators who were put to death by the executioners.

During and after World War I, the ARF actually acted as a state due to the fact that Armenia existed as an established nation for a period of slightly over two and half years (5/28/1918 to 12/3/1920). One of its most controversial missions was Operation Nemesis, or the secret organization to execute the principle characters who were responsible for the Armenian Genocide. Another realization is that this book, or the many others on the instigators of the Genocide, would not have been written if the death condemnations of Ottoman Courts-Martial Trial would have been carried out, there would not have been an Operation Nemesis. The evildoers all managed to escape before the hangings could take place. It took Operation Nemesis to carry out the executions.

In addition to the drama and mysteries of Operation Nemesis, the book covers a brief history of Armenia and the raid of Armenian nationalists on Bank Ottoman in Constantinople after the Turkish massacres of 300,000 Armenians. The assault on the bank was to alert the European powers of the slaughter and butchery of Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s Hamidiye regiments during 1894-1896 period taking place in the eastern provinces of Turkey.

Later, the Executioners covers the action of the Armenian assaulters who assassinated the Turkish perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, what the relationship was between Turkey and the Armenians, how Armenian nationalists, mostly from the Middle East, went on campaign to alert the world of Turkey’s denial to the Armenian Genocide. The movement occurred from 1971 to 1993 resulted in the death of 36 Turkish diplomats and sympathizers and many innocent bystanders. The apparent Crusade alerted the world, but did nothing to admit Turkey’s role in the Genocide.

The book was careful in assuring that names were spelled correctly, but has no guarantee they are. Many times there were contradictions in the research and there was no way to determine which spellings or dates were correct. Often times it was just a matter of a researcher transliterating the Armenian to the English the way he thinks the spelling should be or never searched the correct dates in the first place. Some corrections were established by contacting the person or his relatives directly.

One other minor item is the use of the words Armenian Genocide that is utilized throughout the book. When the atrocities were occurring during World War I the phrase was not in existence but is well described. Readers should not be confused because the phase was not invented but its usage was being utilized. Ottoman Turkey initiated a program to annihilate the Armenian population in Turkey. The Turks came very close to doing this through their murdering, death marches, and inhuman treatment toward their Armenian citizens. Chapter 10 discusses the development of genocide and elaborates on the role Raphael Lemkin and United Nations took in its development.

1

Armenia

Armenia is a region and ancient kingdom in southeast Europe, now an independent republic south of the Caucasus Mountains. Armenia is a land whose prehistory goes back to the time of the Neanderthal type man and of Noah and his ark. The Patriarch Haig, the legendary great, great, grandson of Noah, revolted against Bel, a tyrannical Assyrian despot, soon after God destroyed the Tower of Babel. The traditional account continues to specify that Haig led his followers to the lands of Mt. Ararat where he founded a country eventually known as Hayasa, a contemporary of the Hittite Empire. Present day Armenians call themselves Hyes and their country Hayastan.

Today Armenia is an independent republic located in a landlocked area of 11,500 square miles just north of the border where Iran and Turkey meet. Her population consists of three million inhabitants of which over 91% are Armenian. Other ethnic groups include Kurds, Georgians, Yazidis and Russians. Most of the land is on a high plateau that contains extinct volcanic mountains of considerable height, the largest being Mt. Aragats at the 13,418 feet elevation. Mt. Ararat that is both the historic and current symbol of Armenia is located about 13 miles south of the border in Turkey. The winters are long and severe, and the summers are hot. The country has some fertile valleys where fruit, cotton, tobacco, and other crops are grown. Before the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, Armenia was exporting both agricultural and industrial products to the other republics. She was also known as the Silicon Valley of the Soviet Union. Yerevan (previously spelled Erevan) is the current capital of Armenia.

According to tradition and Movses of Khoren (407-492), the Father of Armenian History, the Patriarch Haig was the great, great grandson of Noah. Armenia is not mentioned in the Bible but there are several references to Gomer and Togarmah. Togarmah was a great grandson of Noah (Genesis 10: 1, 2, 3) and the father of Haig. The genealogy order in Genesis shows Noah, Japheth, Gomer, Togamah together with several other offspring. The Bible in Ezekiel 27:14 states, They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen, and mules supports the fact that ancient Armenians were horse and mule breeders and did trading with other countries with the animals. Modern historians support this premise and ancient Armenian and Georgian chronicles list Togarmah as the ancestor of both people who originally inhabited the land between the Black and Caspian Seas and between two inaccessible mountains, Mount Elbrus and Mount Ararat.

Recent historians claim the indigenous populations of Hittites, Hayes, Hurrians, Mitanis and Urartians all were a part of an Armeno-race that had always resided in the area since the beginning of mankind. There is also evidence that the massive migration of the Sea People out of Trace about 1000 B.C. contributed to its population. Evidence of early settlements can be traced to the ninth millennium B.C. where small villages appeared on the shores of Lake Sevan. Later in the third millennium B.C., an advanced and sophisticated civilization centered around Medzamor and developed in the region. The foundation of the Armenian nation was established soon after the downfall of Urartu that was overrun by the Scythians and Cimmerians in the seventh century B.C. Urartu had been significantly weakened by its wars with Assyria. Urartu from the ninth to eighth centuries B.C. was a major power in the region.

Armenia established a small kingdom in northeastern Anatolia in the seventh century B.C., but soon came under the influence of the Persian Achaemenid Empire until its downfall in 331 B.C. by Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.). After, the Romans came into the area and defeated Antiochus III (247-187 B.C.), ruler of the Seleucid Empire, in the Battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C., Armenia divided itself into two provinces, Greater Armenia and Sophene which were led by two Armenian generals, Artaxias (d. 159 B.C.) and Zariadris (r. 212-188 B.C.), who established the Artaxiad and Zariadras Dynasties.

After Tigranes II the Great of the Artaxiad Dynasty (140-55 B.C.) came to power, he combined the two Armenias together and expanded the borders to its greatest political and regional influence. This was the height of Armenian power from 95-55 B.C. when the lands of Armenia reached from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean to the near shores of the Black Sea. For a brief period Armenia was the most powerful state in the region. In the latter part of his reign, Tigranes was forced to cede territory to the Romans and as time progressed Armenia became the focus of rivalry between Rome and Parthia until the third century A.D. At first a friendly relationship existed between Rome and Armenia, but after Mark Antony (83-30 B.C.) murdered Tigranes’ son Artavazd II (r. 55-34 B.C.), the cordiality deteriorated. Relationships varied between alliances, conquests, and sometimes independence.

After the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, two of his Apostles, Thaddeus (d. 66) and Bartholomew (d. 68), visited Armenia and established the seeds of Christianity into the country. One Armenian king, Abgar of Edessa (r. 4 B.C.-A.D. 7 and 13-50), became the first Christian king after he was cured of leprosy with a cloth that cleansed the Savior’s face while He was on His way to the crucifixion. Both Thaddeus and Bartholomew were later martyred in other sections of Armenia.

In the first century A.D., Parthian influence strengthened in Armenia that allowed Parthia to establish Tiridates I (r. A.D. 52-100), brother of the Parthian king Vologeses, to the Armenian throne thus establishing the Arsacid Dynasty. In 301 A.D., Tiridates III (250-252 and 286-330), twelfth king of the dynasty, proclaimed Armenia a Christian state, thus being the first nation to claim Christianity as her state religion. Saint Gregory the Illuminator (238-326) became the first Catholics of All Armenians perpetuating the lineage of patriarchs from the original Apostles that continues to the present.

In 387 Armenia was partitioned between the east and the west due to the strong infringements of Persia and the Romans. Armenia became a buffer zone between the two great powers. Approximately four fifths of the kingdom of Greater Armenia on the east was placed under Persian rule and the Romans dominated the other fifth. The Arsacid rule was still the reigning power, but it was seriously diminished. In the year 428, the last Arsacid king, Artaxias IV (d. 428), was deposed by the Persians, then both sections of Armenia were governed by appointed governors. Sometimes they were local nobles, other times they were from outside of Armenia.

In 405 Saint Mesrop Mashdotz (361-440) invented the Armenian alphabet. After initial jubilation of the invention, the task of translations began. One of the earliest commissions was the translation of the Bible into Armenian that was completed