Gourgen Yanikian

Gourgen Mkrtich (Megerdich) Yanikian ( _hy. Գուրգեն Յանիկյան, December 24, 1895, Erzerum, Ottoman Armenia - March 27, 1984, USA) was an Armenian author, engineer and an Armenian Genocide survivor who assassinated two Turkish consular officials in California in 1973 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3DD1439F932A35750C0A962948260&sec=&spon= Imprisoned Armenian Dies, New York Times, March 1, 1984] ] .

Biography

He studied as an engineer at the University of Moscow and emigrated to the United States, where he wrote a number of novels included "The Triumph of Judas Iscariot" (1950), "Harem Cross" (1953) and "The Voice of an American" (1960).

On January 27, 1973, in the Biltmore Hotel, 78-year old emigrant Yanikian had lured a consul general and vice-consul of the Republic of Turkey, who expected to receive gifts of art treasures for their government, but instead Yanikian pulled a Luger pistol from a hollowed-out book and emptied it at them. He called the reception desk, said he killed "two evils", then sat calmly on the patio awaiting arrest. His stated purpose was "to demand justice" for the Armenian Genocide. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3DD1439F932A35750C0A962948260&sec=&spon= Imprisoned Armenian Dies, New York Times, March 1, 1984] ]

Armenians hoped Yanikian's trial would provide a vehicle for proving the massacres in a court of law, while there were still surviving witnesses but the District Attorney didn't agree. Yanikian took the only Armenian Genocide witness stand, accompanied by his friend and interpreter, Santa Barbaran Aram Saroyan, the uncle of famous author William Saroyan. Yanikian told of his 26 family members killed in the massacres, and how he watched in hiding as marauding Turks slit his brother's throat. Finally, he said that he killed the Turkish diplomats as representatives of the "government that had massacred his people".

He was sentenced to life in prison in July 1973 and paroled in 1984, over the objection of the Turkish government. [Murder Will Out? District Attorney Regrets Not Allowing Genocide Testimony at Murder Trial, By David D. Minner // The Independent, Apr 2, 1998] Two months later, Gourgen Yanikian was dead of natural causes. He was 88 years old. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3DD1439F932A35750C0A962948260&sec=&spon= Imprisoned Armenian Dies, New York Times, March 1, 1984] ]

In death, Yanikian became a symbol to many Armenians of their resentment toward the Turkish government for refusing to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Upon Yanikian's death, one of his attorneys, William Paparian, said that he "is now a piece of Armenian history." [Murder Will Out? District Attorney Regrets Not Allowing Genocide Testimony at Murder Trial, By David D. Minner // The Independent, Apr 2, 1998]

After Yanikian's death, District Attorney David D. Minner wrote: "Looking back, I regret that I did not allow the genocide tobe proven. Not because Yanikian should have gone free, but becausehistory's darkest chapters - its genocides - should be exposed, sotheir horrors are less likely to be repeated". [Murder Will Out? District Attorney Regrets Not Allowing Genocide Testimony at Murder Trial, By David D. Minner // The Independent, Apr 2, 1998]

Books

in English

*The Triumph of Judas Iscariot, Los Angeles: Research Publ. Co., 1950, 254 p.
*Harem Cross: A Novel of the Near-East, New York: Exposition, 1953, 223 p.
*The Resurrected Christ: A Novel, New York: Exposition, 1955, 141 p.
*The Voice of an American, 1960, Society for the Science of Living; 147 p., ASIN: B0007FZ3L4
*Mirror in the Darkness, 1966, with Helen Rettig, New York: Exposition, 1966, 197 p.

in Armenian

*Purpose and Justice (memoires from the prison), Yerevan, Tigran Mets Publ., 1999

ee also

*Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

References

Links

* [http://www.iransuper.com/ProviderArticleDetail60428/Page1.htm People v Yanikian (Yanikian's trial)]
* [http://www.hist-rom.de/alpha/xy.html Historische Romane – XY, Books by Gourgen Yanikian]
* [http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/sbauthors_wz.html GUIDE TO SANTA BARBARA AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS: Yanikian, Gourgen (1895-1984)]
* [http://www.amazon.com/s?search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Gourgen%20Yanikian Books by Yanikian at Amazon]