Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

JUSTICE COMMANDOS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE • 343exclusively on private support from Armenian communities ratherthan state sponsorship from countries hostile to Turkey. Second, themembers of the JCAG, being very westernized nationalists, valuedWestern and world public opinion highly and therefore took pains toavoid harming non-Turkish nationals, mindful of the potential harmsuch actions could render the Armenian cause. Nonetheless, the JCAGconducted attacks on Turkish targets within the United States.An analysis of 29 noteworthy actions by the JCAG in the periodfrom 1975 to 1983 showed that 15 involved assassination of Turkishdiplomats; 13 involved bombings and arsons of Turkish diplomatic,tourism, and commercial offices; and one incident represented an unfulfilledthreat against Turkish targets. The JCAG terrorism within theUnited States took place entirely from January 1982 to May 1982: On29 January 1982 Kemal Arikan, consul general of Turkey in Los Angeles,was shot and killed as he was driving home. On 22 March 1982 theoffices of Orhan Gunduz, honorary Turkish consul general in Boston,were firebombed, and he himself was shot and killed on 4 May 1982. Aconspiracy to bomb the home of the honorary consul general of Turkeyin Philadelphia was foiled in October 1982. Since then nothing furtherhas been heard of the JCAG either in the United States or abroad.Beginning in July 1983, after the name Justice Commandos of theArmenian Genocide had dropped from use, actions similar to those ofthe JCAG began to be claimed in the name of the Armenian RevolutionaryArmy (ARA). Many analysts believed that the JCAG merelychanged its name to ARA and that it is essentially the same organization.While the ARA made the same disclaimer as had JCAG that it intendedno harm to non-Turkish bystanders, in contrast to earlier JCAGoperations at least six non-Turkish nationals were killed as a result ofthese operations. In fact, very little is known about the membershipsof these groups, their internal structure, or their relations with possiblesponsor states or with other terrorist groups. What little is known aboutthe Armenian groups indicates that they have been involved in factionaldisputes and internecine fighting that has reduced their effectivepresence as terrorist groups since the mid-1980s. The RAND Corporationand the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention ofTerrorism have suggested that former JCAG and ARA members haveentered the military forces of the current Republic of Armenia and thatmany of them became involved in the 1988–1994 conflict over thedisputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a territory within the Republic of