Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a Marxist-Leninist Armenian militant[1] front, that operated from 1975 to the 1990s. ASALA's stated intent was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland".[2]
ASALA was founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon by Hagop Hagopian – also known as Harutiun Tagushian – and Kevork Ajemian,[3] a prominent contemporary writer.
The group's activities were primarily assassinations of Turkish diplomats and politicians in Western Europe, the United States and the broader Middle East.[4] A failed attack in Geneva on October 3, 1980, where two Armenian militants were injured resulted in a new nickname for the group, the 3 October Organization. The ASALA's eight point manifesto was published in 1981.
Continuous attacks prompted Turkey to accuse Cyprus, Greece, Syria, Lebanon and the Soviet Union of provoking or possibly funding the ASALA, though nothing of this sort was ever found to be true.[dubious ][source?]
As per Tessa Hofmann,[who?] Turkish officials frequently used the accusation of collaboration with the ASALA and foreign Armenian circles to incriminate extreme left-wing Turkish opposition groups.[dubious ][5][dubious ][better source needed]
Related pages
[change | change source]Other websites
[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- ↑
- "Files, 1985-1988 Folder Title: Armenian-Americans (2) Box: 1" (PDF). Ronald Reagan Library. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
- "Armenian Terrorist Matters," January 15, 1988, Secret" (PDF). The George Washington University. January 15, 1988. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
- "Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)". Britannica. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
- "A slip-up in Beirut. Polish weapons for ASALA". Przystanek Historia. July 4, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
- "Militant Armenian Group Tied to PLO Allegedly Responsible for Synagogue Arson". Algemeiner. October 4, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
- ↑ U.S. Department of State. "Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)". Retrieved 2007-01-26.
- ↑ Kevork Ajemian, Prominent Contemporary Writer and Surviving Member of Triumvirate Which Founded ASALA, Dies in Beirut, Lebanon // The Armenian Reporter, 01-02-1999
- ↑ Pitman, Paul M. Turkey: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: The Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 283, 354-355 OCLC 17841957
- ↑ Dr. Tessa Hofmann, Armenians In Turkey Today Archived 2020-07-13 at the Wayback Machine, the EU Office of AAE, 2002.