Turkish Foreign Ministry ‘condemns’ reburial of ASALA founder’s relics at Yerevan Military Pantheon
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Monday condemning the transfer and reburial of the relics of hero Gourgen Yanikian, one of the founders of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), at Yerablur Military Pantheon on 5 May.
The ministry ‘strongly condemns’ the burial of Yanikian, who killed Turkish Consul General to Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar and Consul Bahadır Demir on 27 January 1973, at the Yerevan military cemetery.
“This action, which attempts to glorify a brutal terrorist as a hero, constitutes a crime of promoting terrorism and it is unacceptable under any circumstance,” reads the statement.
Yanikian is an Armenian Genocide survivor. Sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the Turkish consular officials, Yanikian was released on parole in January 1984. It is widely believed that Yanikian's act was the inspiration for the founding of the ASALA, the Armenian militant organization of the 1970s and 1980s which staged attacks on Turkish diplomats in retaliation for the Armenian Genocide.
Yanikian is known to have remarked, "I’m not Gourgen Yanikian but unacknowledged history coming back for the 1,500,000 Armenians whose bones desecrate my invisible existence.” In death, he became a symbol for many Armenians of their resentment toward the Turkish government for refusing to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.