Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ARMENIAN SECRET ARMY FOR THE LIBERATION OF ARMENIA • 49anti-American group, has committed only a few terrorist acts in theUnited States, one being the bombing of the Swiss Bank Corporationin New York in May 1982, while a plot to bomb an Air Canada cargobuilding in Los Angeles was foiled in the same month.ASALA was founded in 1975 and concentrated on the assassinationand terrorization of Turkish diplomats to avenge Armenianskilled in the pogroms in eastern Turkey. By 1981 it had engaged in atleast 40 attacks in 11 countries. By mid-1982 ASALA had killed 24Turkish officials and had carried out about 100 bombings, includingan attack at Ankara airport in August 1982. It also attacked Frenchtargets under the name “the Orly Organization” and Swiss targetsunder the names “October Movement” and “June 9” to punish Franceand Switzerland for cracking down on ASALA agents traveling underfalsified passports. The 15 July 1983 attack on Orly airport thatkilled seven people reportedly caused a split in the organization dueto the disaffection of less militant members over the harm done to theArmenian cause by such “blind” acts of terrorism. One month laterASALA conducted an attack at Esenboga Airport in Ankara, killingnine people and injuring 28, while another assault in the GrandBazaar of Istanbul killed two people and injured 27 others. The dissidentgroup became known as the ASALA-Revolutionary Movement,while the main group became known as the ASALA-Militant.As its headquarters were located in Beirut, ASALA suffered somedisruption, having been forced to flee due to the Israeli siege and bombardmentof Beirut in the summer of 1982. ASALA bombed the Frenchembassy in Lebanon in October 1987. It is believed that the leader ofthe ASALA-Militant, Hagop Hagopian, was killed on 28 April 1988by members of his own group. The head of the ASALA-RevolutionaryMovement was Monte Melkonian. Melkonian, who served prisontime in France from 1985 until 1989, moved first to Iran after hisrelease and then to Armenia following its independence in 1991.He led brigades of the Nagorno-Karakbakh Defense Forces againstAzerbaijani troops until he was killed in battle in the Azeri village ofMerzuli on 12 June 1993.The power struggle within, and between, the ASALA factionsled to a reduction in its terrorist acts beginning in the mid-1980s,although ASALA members were suspected in playing a role in theSeptember 1986 bombing campaign in Paris aimed at pressuring theFrench government into releasing some three convicted terrorists,