Gourgen Yanikian

Gourgen Mkrtich Yanikian or in Western Armenian Kourken Mgrditch Yanigian was an Armenian genocide survivor best known for the assassination of two Turkish consular officials, Los Angeles Consul General Mehmet Baydar and Consul Bahadır Demir, in California in 1973. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Yanikian was released on parole in January 1984. It is widely believed that Yanikian's act was the inspiration for the founding of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, the Armenian militant organization of the 1970s and 1980s which staged attacks on Turkish diplomats in an effort to obtain recognition and reparations for the genocide from the government of Turkey.