Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide - Bogosian Eric - Страница 38

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Around this time, the Nemesis agents in Berlin would meet regularly at the home of a diplomat named Libarit Nazarian, an old friend of the German humanitarian Johannes Lepsius. Nazarian was vice consul of the Republic of Armenia in Berlin. Without being privy to operational details, Nazarian and his secretary, Yervant Apelian, assisted Shahan Natali in pursuing the exiled Turkish leaders. Utilizing diplomatic prerogative, Nazarian was able to act as a conduit for communications from Geneva, Boston, and Yerevan. (The conspirators communicated chiefly through letters written in Armenian and utilizing code words, usually with reference to a metaphorical “wedding.”) In addition, he could counsel the team with his own political insight. For example, Nazarian believed that Enver was intentionally spreading false rumors about his whereabouts in order to confuse those who were trying to find him. In Nazarian’s opinion, it was pointless to wait for Enver in Berlin.

At the same time, Hrap (Hrach Papazian) was passing himself off as “Mehmed Ali,” a rich expatriate Turk. The handsome young Armenian moved easily through Ottoman society in Berlin. Fluent in Turkish without a trace of an accent, he had attended law school in Turkey and had gone so far as to have himself circumcised so that he might pass as Muslim without suspicion. With his particular talents, Hrap easily picked up snippets of news from the Turkish students with whom he socialized.

Hrap reported to Shahan Natali that the Turkish underground had met with Egyptian sheik Abdul Aziz and a Druze emir, Shakib Arslan, as well as several Muslims from India. Arslan, who was an ardent pan-Islamist, wanted to bring the Turks and Arabs together in an alliance. An Arab contingent, headed by Amir Faisal (who also represented the Arabs at the Paris peace conference), had reached out to Talat with the hopes that a coalition of some sort could be formed. These were the actors the British were hoping to motivate against the Ottomans during the war. Thus the pan-Islamic circles with which T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) had been involved had a relationship with the exiled Ittihadists. Though the young Armenian fedayeen could not fully parse this information, it clearly indicated that the Ittihadists were regrouping, finding allies, and preparing for anything but concession to Allied desires.

Also, though the Nemesis operatives did not know it at the time, in a classic case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the British viewed the Tashnag agents as allies. The British were keeping an eye on Talat (they knew just where he was but claimed otherwise) and were following the Armenians as best they could. Old hands at spycraft, the British had no compunctions about employing or abetting assassination if necessary. Not only Talat, but Enver, too, was in their sights.

The British were determined to counterbalance any moves that might threaten their hegemony in the east (Mesopotamia, Persia, and India). They were well aware of the pan-Islamists’ intentions, and had even encouraged them when they were at war with the Ottoman Empire. But now they were alarmed by the continued attempts at alliance among Muslims in Egypt, the Levant, and India. T. E. Lawrence warned the Foreign Office “of the mischief which might follow a pact between Faisal and Ataturk or Russian penetration of the region [as] Faisal fruitlessly sought a common front with Turkish, Kurdish and Egyptian nationalists.”¹⁶ Secret British documents from the period report at length on these potential dangers and alliances and Britain’s fears reminiscent of the “Great Game.” The Armenians could not possibly have been aware of all the particulars of the deals being proposed by the Turks, Arabs, and Muslims amongst themselves. But what they did understand was that if Enver Pasha prevailed and received endorsement for an alliance with the Russians, Talat—if he was actually in Berlin—might depart the city altogether, and they would lose him.

Why had Talat settled in Berlin in the first place? The primary reason was probably the fortune in gold that the CUP had stashed outside the empire. Berlin provided easy access to these funds, which were located in Swiss and German banks. Moreover, Germany was the safest place for an exiled Ittihadist to reside. France was swarming with Armenians who would be happy to seek vengeance. Britain could never harbor a man it had repeatedly labeled a war criminal. Likewise, any of the Balkan regions would be very dangerous for a Muslim seeking safe harbor. The United States was out of the question. This left Germany, which was tolerant of its former ally’s presence. German authorities also liked the fact that as long as Talat stayed in Berlin, they could keep an eye on him.

The British certainly knew that Talat was hiding out in Germany. Intelligence officer Sir Andrew Ryan had personally demanded that Germany return Talat and his associates to Turkey for trial. Ryan was “the last of the Dragomans” stationed in Constantinople before the war.¹⁷ (A “dragoman” was an enhanced translator, stationed at each embassy, who would interpret what was being said in negotiations and act as a mediator as well, and thus held a position of power.) German officials answered Ryan with coy stubbornness, demanding to see papers showing that these persons had been found guilty. Only then would they cooperate, but even if they did decide to do so, they claimed to have no idea where these persons were. This attitude enraged the British, who had suffered huge losses at the hands of Ottoman armies at Gallipoli and in the Mesopotamian desert. Documents show clearly that, unable to extricate Talat from Germany, British spies kept tabs on him and knew exactly where he was living.¹⁸

While deep currents of international intrigue flowed around them, the Nemesis squad had lost the scent of their quarry. All leads had gone nowhere. In fact, rather than moving toward their goal, they were losing ground. Long hours of surveillance in Berlin’s cold, damp weather were wearing Tehlirian down. And the fainting spells continued to plague him. Would he be able to rise to the occasion should Talat suddenly appear? He had no choice but to lie low and recuperate.

When Tehlirian finally got back on his feet, Apelian moved him out of the hotel to a room in his own apartment building on Augsburgstrasse in an effort to settle him closer to Azmi’s tobacco shop, where most of the surveillance was going on. Despite the scarcity of apartments in Berlin, “the secretary of the Armenian legation, Yervant Apelian, arranged with the landlady of his flat, an elderly spinster, Elisabeth Stellbaum, to rent him a student room in the same building, 51 Augsburgstrasse, where there was another student, Levon Eftian.”¹⁹

Over these months Tehlirian had met many Armenians, none of whom knew his real reason for being in Berlin. For them, he was nothing more than a melancholy fellow immigrant. Most of them felt sympathy for Soghomon because they knew he had seen the worst of it, and they made every effort to gather him into the fold of the growing Armenian German society. Tehlirian’s first instinct was to keep his head down and avoid interaction. But with his move to the new apartment and his growing friendship with Eftian, socializing was unavoidable.

Levon Eftian, who had first met Soghomon in Paris, was unaware of his friend’s true mission in Berlin, and so was particularly critical of Tehlirian’s poor command of German. He was concerned that Tehlirian would never succeed at the university without mastering the language. Eftian’s plan was for Tehlirian to work with his girlfriend, a lovely German fraulein named Lola Beilinson, who would dedicate herself to improving Soghomon’s language skills. Despite Tehlirian’s resistance, Eftian persuaded him to take weekly lessons, arguing that doing so would be “a favor” to Lola, since she so ardently wanted to help the sad-eyed foreigner.

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