ATAA Remembers Victims of Armenian Terrorism

Gourgen Yanikian, an Armenian American, assassinates Los Angeles Turkish Consul General, Mehmet Baydar, and Vice Consul, Bahadir Demir, after inviting the Turkish diplomats to his hotel suite to present the Turkish Government with a “gift.” Soon after killing the diplomats, Yanikian surrenders to police, is tried in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Santa Barbara, convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ten years later, California Governor George Deukmejian, also an Armenian American, orders the release of Yanikian, who later dies of natural causes. The Armenian Reporter, commemorates Yanikian, declaring that he had “opened [a] new era of political struggle” and “changed the course of Armenian history.”