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Soghomon Tehlirian

Soghomon Tehlirian (2 April 1896 – 23 May 1960) was an Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) assassin who killed former Ottoman Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha in Berlin, Germany on 15 March 1921. Considered a national hero by Armenians, he died in exile in the United States.

Biography[]

Soghomon Tehlirian was born on 2 April 1896 in Nerkin Pakarich, Erzurum Vilayet, Ottoman Empire. He studied in Serbia and fled to join the Imperial Russian Army during World War I; Tehlirian lost 85 relatives in the Armenian Genocide, including his mother, three sisters, two brothers, his brother-in-law, and a niece. In 1921, he joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and took part in Operation Nemesis, aiming to assassinate the former Ottoman Grand Vizier Talaat Pasha, who was in exile in Germany. Tehlirian moved into Berlin and studied Pasha's daily movements, and on 15 March 1921 he felled him with a single Luger shot. His handlers Armen Garo and Shahan Natalie told him not to run from the crime scene, and he was arrested by German police. He was found "not guilty", and he lived in Serbia until 1945, when he moved to the United States. He died in San Francisco in 1960.

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