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The Armenian Nuremberg
By Vartkes Sinanian
The Case of Misak Torlakian, the fourth book by Vartkes Yeghiayan and Ara Arabyan in a series on the Armenian Genocide and the Armenian Cause, offers rare manuscripts of the trial of the British Military Tribunal that had charged Torlakian with the assassination of the former minister of interior of Azerbaijan, Bilhud Khan Jivanshir, in Constantinople on July 18, l921. Jivanshir was responsible for the massacre of 30,000 Armenians in Baku and was visiting Constantinople as a trade representative of the newly established Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. Jivanshir was rightly called the Talaat Pasha of Azerbaijan for the atrocities he committed against our people.
The aftermath of the Armenian Genocide in l915 was very critical for the Armenian people. The chaos, the misery of the hundreds of thousands of survivors accompanied by the disintegration of a vanquished and demoralized people was fast becoming a harsh reality. The enormity of the human suffering and the humiliation of a proud people were unfolding before the very eyes of an indifferent world. It was a defining moment. It was in such circumstances that the General Assembly of the ARF, which convened in l919 in Yerevan, made the historic decision to initiate “Operation Nemesis,” with the purpose of liquidating those who had conceived and directed the extermination of 1,500,000 Armenians. The success of “Operation Nemesis” made a significant impact on the morale of our people throughout the world.
Yeghiayan began his series in l985 with the publication of The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian, which dealt with the historic trial of the assassination of Talaat Pasha, the notorious architect of the Armenian Genocide. It was Talaat who declared that the Armenian Question existed no more, after his diabolical plan of extermination of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire was executed.
The Case of Misak Torlakian offers the manuscripts of the historic trial in Constantinople. Torlakian was charged for murder by the British Military Tribunal. After deliberating for weeks, the Tribunal found the accused “unconscious and not responsible” for the act, and exiled him to Greece. The book provides a rare picture of the legal proceedings of the court in Constantinople, which at the time was under the control of the victorious Allies. The trial lasted two months and Hmayak Khosrovian, a professor of penal law, who together with the other lawyers offered their services for free, headed the defense team.
The documents included in this book were found in the archives of Rafael Lemkin, the Nuremberg Trials attorney who coined the word “genocide” and was instrumental in warning the world against the threat Hitler posed. The book quotes one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, Winston Churchill, referring to the plight of the Armenians when he declared that “there is no reasonable doubt that the crime was planned and executed for political reasons...whole districts were blotted out in one administrative holocaust—these were beyond human redress.”
I met Torlakian in Cyprus in l963. I had read his fascinating autobiography, With My Days, in Armenian. It described his daring years growing up near Trabzon, as well as the tumultuous life he lived as a revolutionary. The book struck a chord with me and I was inspired by Torlakian’s resilience, alertness and determination—qualities that generated a beam of hope for our generation to get out of the tragic impasse. I was now face to face with the man I admired for his courage and sense of justice. Torlakian was not an engaging speaker but his words were profound and uplifting. He was an affable and humble man who, nevertheless, was a larger than life figure for me.
The Case of Misak Torlakian deserves to reach a wide readership. The book is the product of Vartkes Yeghiayan’s decades of exhaustive research of transcripts and documents that shed light on one of the bloodiest chapters in our history. At this critical juncture in our history, Torlakian’s life speaks volumes to us.