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Moments later, Talat Pasha lay on the ground, dead.
CHAPTER SEVEN The Trial
Glory to him who wielded the avenging thunderbolt! Soghomon Tehlirian exercised holy vengeance. He is the symbol of our Nemesis.
—Flyer circulated in the Armenian American communities
Soghomon Tehlirian’s June 1921 trial lasted only three days amidst a charged political environment. A young man had assassinated a world leader. Seven years earlier the Great War had been sparked when a twenty-year-old Serbian, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in late June 1914. Now, another young man in his twenties had killed another important political figure. This time the killer was from Armenia, which, like Serbia, had been a longtime territory of the Ottoman Empire. The powerless were killing the powerful and the world was transfixed.
The drama was riveting also because not just a young man but an entire nation was, by association, on trial. This trial was not only about Tehlirian and Talat but also about the Armenians and the Turks. And it was taking place in Berlin, of all places. The proceedings would shed light not only on Ottoman war crimes but on a particularly shameful aspect of the war that many Germans wanted to forget: the Reich’s complicity in the destruction of the Ottoman Christians.
Many outside Germany believed that the Kaiser’s military had aided and abetted the deportations and killings. At the very least, the German commanders had done nothing to stop the carnage. This was yet another item to add to Germany’s unenviable résumé as a warmonger and aggressor state. The citizens of the Allied nations were almost unanimous in their belief that the “Huns” were inherently violent and brutal, and most non-Germans were certain that Germany should receive harsh punishment. Germany was responsible for millions of war dead; now, here was further proof of its barbarity, its alliance with Turkey. (In Leipzig, war crimes trials before the Reichsgericht, or Supreme Court, were taking place concurrently with Tehlirian’s trial in Berlin.)
Germany’s leaders could not afford to let the trial become an examination of their involvement with the murderous Ittihadists because at that very moment, terms that could dramatically affect the Fatherland were being negotiated at the Paris treaty conferences. Minimizing reparations was a top priority for German statesmen. Key to that effort was covering up Germany’s role as accomplice. Since a trial was unavoidable, it was imperative to put full responsibility onto “the Turk” rather than “the Hun.” This was not simply a matter of reputation; this was about the survival of the German nation. Germany could not move on until the treaties were signed. The trial must not be allowed to make matters worse.
As Tessa Hofma
Any suggestions of wrongdoing on the part of the Germans had to be diluted. More than that, this trial must contribute to a new, more favorable public image for Germany. The prosecution needed to paint the Turks with the blackest brush possible. The Armenian defense team was well aware of this. In a secret memo to fellow Tashnags, Armen Garo a
The sensational killing had made headlines worldwide. A rootless immigrant had murdered a convicted war criminal. The assassin was a hardworking engineering student who suffered from chronic “epilepsy.” It was even possible that the young man was mentally ill as a result of the fact that six years earlier he had witnessed the brutal executions of his entire family. The killer had few friends, no real plans, and apparently no means of employment. The murdered man had been one of the most powerful men in the world. The killer was an Armenian, the victim a Turk. The enmity between these two nationalities was legendary.
On the first day of his trial, this loner, this misfit, the man the New York Times described as an “undersized swarthily palefaced Armenian,”3 exuded an aura of serenity and intelligence. Anyone could see that this was no crazed maniac. Neatly dressed in suit and tie, clean-shaven and poised, Tehlirian sat calmly at the defense table flanked by top-shelf lawyers and interpreters. The expensive defense team had been underwritten by a well-endowed fund covering all of the defendant’s needs. Prominent members of the Armenian expat community, having no prior co
The trial took place in the high-ceilinged Victorian chamber of Berlin’s Third District Court beneath a massive chandelier. Judge Erich Lehmberg, with his counselors Karl Locke and Ernest Bathe on his left, presided over a jury of twelve that included two landlords, a brick maker, a butcher, and a locksmith. District Attorney Gollnick; Tehlirian’s three lawyers—Dr. Adolf von Gordon, privy legal counselor, Berlin; Dr. Joha
From the start, Tehlirian held the courtroom’s full attention as the translator repeated his softly recounted story of the rape and murder of his sisters as well as the bloody killings of his brothers and mother. His interpreter translated into German and a court stenographer took notes. The young man’s story was like an adventure novel. Left for dead, he had made an astonishing escape from the killing fields, managing to cross the wastelands of Kurdish territory and escape through the mountains. He was a thrilling example of the triumph of the spirit despite all odds. He was brave in so many ways, and now here he was, humbly standing trial, a man who had risen above the heaviest of burdens. Only the hardest heart could remain unmoved by a story so full of pathos.
The subtext was clear: Tehlirian had surmounted his victimhood. The ski