A square in the French city of Marseille will be officially named after Soghomon Tehlirian—the Armenian who assassinated Talaat Pasha, Armenian Weekly reported.
Square in Marseille to be named after Soghomon Tehlirian
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 14, ARTSAKHPRESS: Marseille Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin, several public and political figures, as well as representatives of the French Armenian community will come together on April 21 to officially welcome the naming of the square, in an inauguration event organized jointly by the Marseille municipality and the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF).
In June 1915, during the deportation of Erzincan Armenians, Tehlirian witnessed the murder of his mother and brother, along with the rape and murder of his three sisters. He was struck on the head and left for dead. He survived and escaped to Tiflis, where he joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
In 1921 he was assigned to the ARF’s Operation Nemesis, which sought to punish Turkish officials guilty of organizing and carrying out the Armenian Genocide.
Talaat was killed by Tehlirian with a single bullet on the morning of March 15, 1921, in Berlin, in broad daylight. Tehlirian did not flee the scene and was immediately arrested.
He was tried for murder but was exonerated by the German court. His trial became a highly sensational event, examining not only Tehlirian’s guilt but also that of Talaat Pasha for the Armenian deportations and mass killings.
After the assassination, Tehlirian moved to Serbia and married Anahit Tatikian, who was also from Erzincan. The couple moved to Belgium and lived there until 1945, when they moved to San Francisco.
Tehlirian died in 1960 and is buried at the Ararat Cemetery in Fresno, California.
