Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia facts for kids
The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a Marxist-Leninist guerilla organization, that operated from 1975 to 1986. The stated intention of ASALA was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its alleged responsibility for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland".
ASALA was founded in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon by Hagop Hagopian (Harutiun Tagushian) and Kevork Ajemian, a prominent contemporary writer.
The group's activities were primarily assassinations of Turkish diplomats and politicians in Western Europe, the United States and the Middle East. A failed attack in Geneva on October 3, 1980, in which two Armenian militants were injured resulted in a new nickname for the group, the 3 October Organization. The ASALA's eight point manifesto was published in 1981.
Continuous attacks prompted Turkey to accuse Cyprus, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and the Soviet Union of provoking or possibly funding the ASALA, though nothing of this sort was ever found to be true.
According to Tessa Hofmann, Turkish officials frequently used the accusation of collaboration with the ASALA and foreign Armenian circles to incriminate extreme left-wing Turkish opposition groups.
Images for kids
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Countries where ASALA made attacks between 1975-1985.
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Memorial to the fallen diplomats at the site of the attack on Atilla Altıkat in Ottawa, Canada.
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The ASALA memorial in the military cemetery of Yerablur, Yerevan
See also
In Spanish: Ejército Secreto Armenio para la Liberación de Armenia para niños
