Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) was an Armenian militant organization active from 1975 to 1987. JCAG conducted an international campaign of attacks against Turkish representatives and interests, primarily in Europe and North America, killing numerous attachés of the Turkish government. JCAG's stated reason for these attacks was the establishment of an independent Armenia in historical Armenian areas and official recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey. By 1983, JCAG is generally thought to have transformed into the Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA) as either a renaming or continuation, with communiques and military activities claimed under that name until 1985. The organization committed a single attack in 1986 under the name Greek-Bulgarian-Armenian Front, and is believed to have unofficially dissolved the following year.

History

Affiliation with Armenian Revolutionary Federation

Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) and the following Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA) are generally thought to be the armed wing of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a left-wing Armenian nationalist and Pan-Armenian political party established in the 19th century, which at the time sought the independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union. The JCAG and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), a Marxist-Leninist group, were the two major Armenian groups who carried out attacks mostly against Turkish targets in retaliation for the Armenian genocide in 1915; their goals were the recognition of the genocide by the Turkish government and the establishment of an independent Armenian state that would have included parts of Turkey. The ARF was instrumental in the creation of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918, which existed for two years until it was annexed by the Soviet Union, the successor state of the Russian Empire which had previously ruled eastern Armenia. After the Soviets came to power, the ARF leadership was exiled, where the organization maintained its existence internationally through the Armenian diaspora.

Armed campaign

Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) carried out attacks from 1975 to 1987, and according to Gary LaFree the peak of their attacks occurred in 1980. The existence of JCAG was discovered in May 1976, when a member was killed by his own bomb in the headquarters of ARF in Paris. It was confirmed when French political scientist Gaïdz Minassian was allowed to consult the archives of ARF for his doctoral thesis. In several occasions, the official newspapers of ARF in the United States, France and Lebanon justified the "armed struggle" and published official communiqués of JCAG. The legal branches of the ARF fundraised to pay the lawyer costs of arrested JCAG members, the most famous case being Harry Sassounian, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the Turkish general consul in Los Angeles. According to Dashnak newspaper Asbarez (October 15, 1983), several dozens of thousands of Armenians (ARF sympathisers and militants) participated to the Sassounian solidarity groups. French ARF organized a demonstration in front of US consulate in Lyon, in protestation against Sassounian's arrest. The ARF also supported Harutyun Krikor Levonian and Alexander Elbekyan, who were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for the assassination of Galip Balkar, Turkish ambassador to Yugoslavia, in Belgrade, and Max Hraïr Kilndjian, sentenced to two years imprisonment as an accessory in the attempted murder of the Turkish ambassador to Switzerland. In 1982, an attempt to bomb the building of Turkish consulate in Philadelphia was stopped by the FBI. The leader of the group, Vicken Hovsepian, was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, a sentence confirmed in appeal. In January 2001, another leader of the American ARF, and former chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Mourad Topalian, was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment for illegal storing of weapons and explosives for JCAG. JCAG's activities were concentrated in European and North American countries, targeting Turkish interests, mainly the assassination of Turkish diplomats. In 1983, the JCAG took the name of "Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA)", and like before, ARF-affiliated press published ARA communiqués as well as articles supporting its aims. Every year the ARF organizes international ceremonies in honor of the five ARA members who attacked the Turkish embassy in Portugal, especially in Glendale, Los Angeles, in New Jersey, Beirut, Paris and Décines-Charpieu. After three ARA perpetrators of attack against Turkish embassy in Ottawa were sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years, ARF attacked the verdict. Under the name of "Greek-Bulgarian-Armenian Front", the JCAG perpetrated two attacks in Australia: the bombing of Melbourne's Turkish consulate, for which ARF member Levon Demirian was sentenced and served 10 years in prison, and the bombing of a mail sorting facility in Brisbane, on January 19, 1987.

Attacks

25 total dead