Soghomon Tehlirian

Lore & Background

Soghomon Tehlirian was born on April 2, 1896, in the village of Bagarich in the Erzurum vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, and raised in Erzincan. He studied at the Protestant elementary school in Erzinjan and later at the Getronagan Lyceum of Constantinople, then went to Serbia to study engineering. In June 1914 he was in Valjevo, Serbia, and in the fall of that year he made his way to Russia to join a volunteer unit on the Caucasus Front against the Turks. According to one account, in June 1915 the Ottoman local police ordered the deportation of all Armenians in Erzinjan, and Tehlirian lost 85 family members to the Armenian genocide; however, his son later stated in 2016 that Tehlirian's mother and older brother died in the genocide, that he had no sister, and that his father was fighting in Russia while his other two brothers were in Serbia.

Reader's Guide

Tehlirian's assassination of Talaat Pasha and subsequent acquittal had lasting significance. The trial examined not only Tehlirian's actions but also his conviction that Talaat was the main author of the Armenian deportation and mass killings.

The defense focused on the influence of the genocide on Tehlirian's mental state, and the jury acquitted him after slightly over an hour of deliberation. The trial influenced Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who later reflected on it. Tehlirian is considered a national hero by Armenians, and his grave monument in Fresno, California, features an eagle slaying a snake, symbolizing the arm of justice of the Armenian people extending their wrath onto Talaat Pasha.

Did You Know?

• Tehlirian killed Harutiun Mkrtichian, a former Ottoman police agent and informer, whose role in the Armenian deportations is often exaggerated or misattributed.
• During his trial, Tehlirian claimed he saw his mother in a dream who scorned him for not taking revenge.
• After the assassination, Tehlirian lived under the name Saro Melikian and worked as a postal clerk in San Francisco.