Soghomon Tehlirian

Soghomon Tehlirian
Tehlirian in 1921
Born	(1896-04-02)April 2, 1896 , Erzurum Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	May 23, 1960(1960-05-23) (aged 64) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Resting place	Ararat Cemetery, Fresno, California
Political party	Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Soghomon Tehlirian (or Tehlerian, classical Armenian: Սողոմոն Թեհլիրեան; April 2, 1896–May 23, 1960) was an Armenian who assassinated Talaat Pasha, the former Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, in Berlin on March 15, 1921. The assassination was a part of Operation Nemesis, planned by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation as revenge for the Armenian Genocide orchestrated by the Ottoman Imperial Government during World War I. Talaat Pasha had been convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in the Turkish courts-martial of 1919–20, and was viewed as the main orchestrator of the genocide. After a two-day trial Tehlirian was found not guilty by the German court, and freed. Tehlirian is considered a national hero by Armenians.

Soghomon Tehlirian was born on April 2, 1896 in the village of Nerkin Bagarij, in the Erzurum vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. Tehlirian's father left for Serbia to secure the family's planned move to the country. After his return in 1905, he was arrested and sentenced to six months imprisonment. During this time, the Tehlirian family moved from Nerkin Bagarij to Erzinjan. Tehlirian received his initial education at the Protestant elementary school in Erzinjan. After graduation at the Getronagan (Central) Lyceum of Constantinople, he went to study engineering in Serbia and had plans to continue his education in Germany.

He was in Valjevo, Serbia, in June 1914. In the fall of that year, Tehlirian made his way to Russia and joined the army to serve in a volunteer unit on the Caucasus Front against the Turks. In June 1915, the Ottoman local police ordered the deportation of all the Armenians in Erzinjan. Tehlirian's mother, three sisters, his sister's husband, his two brothers, and a two-year-old niece were deported. All told, Tehlirian lost 85 family members to the Armenian Genocide.