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Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)
Հայաստանի Ազատագրութեան Հայ Գաղտնի Բանակ (ՀԱՀԳԲ)
LeaderHagop Hagopian (1975–1988)[1]
Dates of operation1975–1991 according to Turkish Intelligence (MİT)
Motives"To compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland."[2]
Active regionsLebanon, Western Europe, Greece, United States, Turkey
IdeologyMarxism-Leninism
Armenian nationalism
Left-wing nationalism
Revolutionary socialism
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
Notable attacksParis Turkish consulate attack (1981)
Esenboğa Airport attack (1982)
Orly Airport attack (1983)
Allies Greece
Cyprus
Armenia
PLO
PFLP
Syria
Lebanese National Resistance Front
Opponents Turkey
Israel
Azerbaijan
Lebanese Forces
Flag

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a militant organization active between 1975 and the 1990s whose stated goal was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland."[3] ASALA itself[4] and other sources[5][6][7][8] described it as a guerilla and armed[9] organization. Some sources, including the United States Department of State,[10] as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan[11] listed it as a terrorist organization.[12][13][14][15][16]

The principal goal of ASALA was to establish a United Armenia that would include the formerly Armenian-inhabited six vilayets of the Ottoman Empire (Western Armenia) and Soviet Armenia.[17] The group sought to claim the area (called Wilsonian Armenia) that was promised to the Armenians by American President Woodrow Wilson in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, following the Armenian genocide, during which Ottoman Turks murdered 1.5 million Armenians,[18] which Turkey openly denies.

ASALA attacks and assassinations resulted in the deaths of 46 people and 299 injured, mostly individuals serving the Turkish government. The organization has also claimed responsibility for more than 50 bomb attacks.[19] Suffering from internal schisms, the group was relatively inactive in the 1990s, although in 1991 it claimed an unsuccessful attack on the Turkish ambassador to Hungary. ASALA's last and most recent attack took place in Brussels in 1997, where a group of militants claiming to be ASALA bombed the Turkish Embassy in the city.[20] The organization has not engaged in militant activity since then.[21] The group's mottos were "The armed struggle and right political line are the way to Armenia" and "Viva the revolutionary solidarity of oppressed people!"[22]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference MIPT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Hunsicker (2006). Understanding International Counter Terrorism. Universal-Publishers. p. 431. ISBN 1-58112-905-X. Archived from the original on 2021-01-01. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  3. ^ U.S. Department of State. "Appendix B". Patterns of Global Terrorism Report – 1996 .
  4. ^ Jürgen Gottschlich: Beihilfe zum Völkermord: Deutschlands Rolle bei der Vernichtung der Armenier. Christoph Links-Verlag, 2015. ISBN 978-3-86153-817-2. Digitalisat Archived 2023-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Political dissent: an international guide to dissident, extra-parliamentary, guerrilla, and illegal political movements, by Henry W. Degenhardt, Alan John Day, Gale Research Company, 1983, p. 489
  6. ^ Remembering with Vengeance, by Pico Iyer – Time, № 32, 8 August 1983
  7. ^ The Caucasus: an introduction, by Frederik Coene, 2009 – 238 pages, p. 221
  8. ^ The history of Turkey, by Douglas Arthur Howard – 2001 – 241 pages, p. 161
  9. ^ Untold Histories of the Middle East, by Amy Singer, Christoph Neumann, Selcuk Somel – 2010 – 240 pages, p. 27
  10. ^ United States Department of State. Patterns of Global Terrorism Report: 1989 Archived 2014-02-19 at the Wayback Machine, p 57
  11. ^ "Armenian Aggression Against Azerbaijan". Archived from the original on June 25, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ Jessup (1998). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945-1996. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 39. ISBN 0-313-28112-2. Archived from the original on 2021-01-01. Retrieved 2020-12-24. A leftist separatist terrorist group that, before 1984, was quite active in the European area, ASALA began its operations before 1975.
  13. ^ ISBN 0-313-28112-2, ISBN 978-0-313-28112-9, p. 39
  14. ^ Michel Wieviorka, David Gordon White. The making of terrorism. University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN 0-226-89650-1, ISBN 978-0-226-89650-2, p. 256
  15. ^ Bruce Hoffman. Inside terrorism. Columbia University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-231-12699-9, ISBN 978-0-231-12699-1, p. 71
  16. ^ Göçek, Fatma Müge (2011). The Transformation of Turkey: Redefining State and the Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era. I.B. Tauris. p. 151.
  17. ^ Terrorist Group Profiles. DIANE Publishing, 1989. p. 32
  18. ^ Pitman, Paul M. Turkey: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: The Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 283, 354–355 OCLC 17841957
  19. ^ "27 May 1988". United Press International. Archived from the original on 27 March 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  20. ^ Federation of American Scientists. "Patterns of Global Terrorism: 1997: Europe and Eurasia Overview". FAS. Archived from the original on April 11, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  21. ^ Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) Archived 2009-04-22 at the Wayback Machine. GlobalSecurity.org
  22. ^ (in Armenian) G. Yazchian, Thirty years ago this day was born ASALA, Azg daily, Yerevan, January 20, 2005

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الجيش الأرميني السري لتحرير أرمينيا Arabic Ermənistanın Azadlığı üçün Gizli Erməni Ordusu AZ آسالا AZB Армянская сакрэтная армія вызвалення Арменіі BE Арменска тайна армия за освобождение на Армения Bulgarian Exèrcit Secret Armeni per a l'Alliberament d'Armènia Catalan Arménská tajná armáda pro osvobození Arménie Czech Asala German Μυστικός Αρμενικός Στρατός για την απελευθέρωση της Αρμενίας Greek ASALA EO

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