Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide - Bogosian Eric - Страница 47

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Judge Lehmberg opened the trial by establishing that Tehlirian was born on April 2, 1897, in the village of Pakarij (in his autobiography, he claims that he was born in 1896), moving to the larger town of Erzincan when he was a small boy. Tehlirian explained, through his interpreter, that the men in his family were coffee merchants, adding, as he mixed fact with fiction, that he had two brothers and three sisters. The judge asked, “Did all these brothers and sisters live in your parents’ house until 1915?” To which Tehlirian replied, “They all lived there except one sister who was married.” In fact, by 1915, not only was Tehlirian’s father not living in Erzincan, but Tehlirian and his older brother were likewise long gone. Though he admitted that his brother Misak had been a soldier (ostensibly home on leave and “caught” by the Turks when the deportations began), Misak was in fact hundreds of miles away at the time, on the other side of the Russian front, fighting against the Turks. As was Tehlirian.

The prosecuting attorney repeatedly tried to get the judge to focus on the murder (and Tehlirian’s part in it), but Lehmberg preferred to explore Tehlirian’s story: “We wish to hear from the defendant in detail regarding what led to the massacres and what his family experienced.”

According to the transcript of the trial, Tehlirian recounted a typical story of what we now call “ethnic cleansing”:

After the war began in 1914 and Armenian soldiers were conscripted, in May 1915 came the news that the schools had to be shut and that the city’s notables and teachers were going to be sent away to camps.… I was scared and didn’t want to leave home. After these convoys were taken away, rumors started spreading that the people who’d been deported earlier had already been killed. And through a cable we learned that out of all the deported people from Erzincan, only one man was still alive: Martirossian.

In early June the order came that the people of Erzincan had to be ready to leave. We were also told that all our money and valuables could be handed over to the authorities for safekeeping. Three days later, early in the morning the residents were taken out of the city.… After the order came that the people had to leave the city, they were mustered and herded together outside. The line of people then moved forward in caravans and convoys.

The judge asked, “How many days did you march?” Tehlirian replied, “I do not know. After leaving the city, already on the first day my parents were killed.”

Justice Lehmberg continued to lead the witness:

LEHMBERG: Who escorted the caravans?

TEHLIRIAN: Gendarmes, soldiers on horseback, and other soldiers.

LEHMBERG: A large number?

TEHLIRIAN: They came from both sides of the road.

LEHMBERG: They were also in front and behind?

TEHLIRIAN: They came from both sides.

Helpfully, the judge added, “To prevent someone getting away?” Tehlirian: “Definitely.” Lehmberg then asked, “Now, how did your parents and your brothers and sisters die?”

TEHLIRIAN: When the column was some way from the city, we were ordered to stop. The gendarmes began to plunder and tried to get hold of the column’s money and valuables.

When Lehmberg asked, “How did they justify this?” Tehlirian took advantage of the question to instruct the greater public who would be reading about the trial: “They didn’t say. No one in the world can explain it. Things like that take place in Asia’s interior.” Lehmberg helped Tehlirian along: “So something like this takes place without people being able to understand the reasons?”

TEHLIRIAN: Yes. It happened.

LEHMBERG: With other nationalities as well?

Tehlirian promptly replied, “Only the Armenians were treated this way by the Turks.” He continued, “During the plundering those of us in the column took rifle fire from up front. One of the gendarmes then dragged away my sister, and my mother cried out, ‘Please, let me go blind!’—I can’t remember that day any more. I don’t want to keep on being reminded of that day. I’d rather die right now than continue describing that black day.”

Tehlirian went silent.

Lehmberg, taking Tehlirian’s distress at face value, was compassionate but firm: “I’m obliged to let you know that the court must lay the strongest importance on learning about these things from you, in particular as you are the only person who can say something about this deed. Perhaps you can pull yourself together and overcome your distress.” Tehlirian’s story drifted into a surreal concoction of place and time. “They took everyone away and beat me as well. Then I saw how my brother’s skull was split apart with an ax.”

LEHMBERG: Your sister was taken away? Did she return?

TEHLIRIAN: Yes, my sister was taken away and raped.

LEHMBERG: Did she return afterwards?

TEHLIRIAN: No.

LEHMBERG: Who split open your brother’s skull with an ax?

TEHLIRIAN: When the soldiers and gendarmes began their massacre, ordinary people showed up too. That’s when my youngest brother’s skull was split open. My mother fell down.

LEHMBERG: Why did she fall?

TEHLIRIAN: I don’t know why, if it was a bullet or something else that caused it.

LEHMBERG: Where was your father?

TEHLIRIAN: I didn’t see my father; he was farther up ahead, where there was also fighting.

LEHMBERG: What did you do yourself?

TEHLIRIAN: I felt a blow to my head and fell down then. I don’t know what happened afterwards.

Judge Lehmberg made no attempt to clarify in what order the rapes and bludgeonings occurred. Rather, he prodded Tehlirian to continue.

LEHMBERG: Did you remain lying in the spot where the massacre took place?

TEHLIRIAN: I don’t know how long I lay there. Maybe two days. When I woke up I saw many corpses close by, because the entire caravan had been killed then. I saw very long piles of corpses. But I couldn’t make out everything well since it was pretty dark. First, I didn’t know where I was; then I saw the truth, that it was corpses.

LEHMBERG: Could you make out your parents, brothers, and sisters among the corpses?

TEHLIRIAN: I saw my mother’s body lying on its face, and my brother’s body lay on top of me. I couldn’t make out anything else.… When I stood up I saw that my leg was wounded and that my arm was bleeding.

LEHMBERG: Was your head injured?

TEHLIRIAN: I was first hit on the head.

LEHMBERG: Do you know what kind of implement you were wounded with?

TEHLIRIAN: While the massacre was taking place I ducked my head down, so I couldn’t know that. I only heard screaming.

LEHMBERG: You said the guards were gendarmes and soldiers on horseback. Then you said that ordinary people were also there. What do you mean by that?

TEHLIRIAN: The Turks living in Erzincan.

LEHMBERG: They were present and also participated in the massacre?

TEHLIRIAN: All I know is that when the gendarmes started to kill, those people were there.

LEHMBERG: And now after a day or two you regained consciousness and realized your brother’s body was lying on top of you. But you didn’t see your parents’ bodies there as well?

TEHLIRIAN: I saw my oldest brother’s body on top of me.

PROSECUTOR: I think it was the younger brother whose head had been split open with an ax.

LEHMBERG: Was it your younger brother’s body?

Zakarian, the translator, clarified the point: “No, the oldest brother’s.”

LEHMBERG: But from behind you saw that your younger brother had been struck with the ax?

TEHLIRIAN: Yes.

LEHMBERG: Have you seen your parents since that day?

TEHLIRIAN: No.

LEHMBERG: And your brothers and sisters?

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