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The Armenian Nuremberg
By Vartkes Sinanian
 The Case of Misak Torlakian, the fourth book by
Vartkes Yeghiayan and Ara Arabyan in a series on the
Armenian Genocide and the Armenian Cause, offers rare
manuscripts of the trial of the British Military Tribunal
that had charged Torlakian with the assassination of the
former minister of interior of Azerbaijan, Bilhud Khan
Jivanshir, in Constantinople on July 18, l921. Jivanshir was
responsible for the massacre of 30,000 Armenians in Baku and
was visiting Constantinople as a trade representative of the
newly established Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. Jivanshir
was rightly called the Talaat Pasha of Azerbaijan for the
atrocities he committed against our people.
The aftermath of the Armenian Genocide in l915 was very
critical for the Armenian people. The chaos, the misery of
the hundreds of thousands of survivors accompanied by the
disintegration of a vanquished and demoralized people was
fast becoming a harsh reality. The enormity of the human
suffering and the humiliation of a proud people were
unfolding before the very eyes of an indifferent world. It
was a defining moment. It was in such circumstances that the
General Assembly of the ARF, which convened in l919 in
Yerevan, made the historic decision to initiate “Operation
Nemesis,” with the purpose of liquidating those who had
conceived and directed the extermination of 1,500,000
Armenians. The success of “Operation Nemesis” made a
significant impact on the morale of our people throughout
the world.
Yeghiayan began his series in l985 with the publication of
The Case of Soghomon Tehlirian, which dealt with the
historic trial of the assassination of Talaat Pasha, the
notorious architect of the Armenian Genocide. It was Talaat
who declared that the Armenian Question existed no more,
after his diabolical plan of extermination of the Armenian
people in the Ottoman Empire was executed.
The Case of Misak Torlakian offers the manuscripts of
the historic trial in Constantinople. Torlakian was charged
for murder by the British Military Tribunal. After
deliberating for weeks, the Tribunal found the accused
“unconscious and not responsible” for the act, and exiled
him to Greece. The book provides a rare picture of the legal
proceedings of the court in Constantinople, which at the
time was under the control of the victorious Allies. The
trial lasted two months and Hmayak Khosrovian, a professor
of penal law, who together with the other lawyers offered
their services for free, headed the defense team.
The documents included in this book were found in the
archives of Rafael Lemkin, the Nuremberg Trials attorney who
coined the word “genocide” and was instrumental in warning
the world against the threat Hitler posed. The book quotes
one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, Winston
Churchill, referring to the plight of the Armenians when he
declared that “there is no reasonable doubt that the crime
was planned and executed for political reasons...whole
districts were blotted out in one administrative
holocaust—these were beyond human redress.”
I met Torlakian in Cyprus in l963. I had read his
fascinating autobiography, With My Days, in Armenian. It
described his daring years growing up near Trabzon, as well
as the tumultuous life he lived as a revolutionary. The book
struck a chord with me and I was inspired by Torlakian’s
resilience, alertness and determination—qualities that
generated a beam of hope for our generation to get out of
the tragic impasse. I was now face to face with the man I
admired for his courage and sense of justice. Torlakian was
not an engaging speaker but his words were profound and
uplifting. He was an affable and humble man who,
nevertheless, was a larger than life figure for me.
The Case of Misak Torlakian deserves to reach a wide
readership. The book is the product of Vartkes Yeghiayan’s
decades of exhaustive research of transcripts and documents
that shed light on one of the bloodiest chapters in our
history. At this critical juncture in our history,
Torlakian’s life speaks volumes to us.
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