20 facts about Hakob Hakobian

Hagop Hagopian (or Agop Agopian; Armenian: Յակոբ Յակոբեան; 1951–28 April 1988) was one of the founders and the main leader of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA).

Born in Mosul, Iraq as Harutiun Takoshian (Armenian: Յարութիւն Թագուշեան), he took the nom de guerre Hagop Hagopian, and moved to Lebanon, where according to some sources he allied the well-liked Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 1975, alongside similar to writer Kevork Ajemian and others, and past the retain from Palestinian groups, he founded in Beirut the ASALA. As leader of ASALA, he directed attacks and assassinations of Turkish diplomats and their families in various countries of the world.

Following the Israeli violent behavior of Lebanon in 1982, Hagopian fled and supposedly set up extra bases in Damascus and Athens. He broke like the Palestine Liberation Organization, which had firm ASALA training and support, and linked in the works with the anti-PLO leader Abu Nidal.

Hagopian was wanted in France for masterminding the Orly Airport antagonism in July 1983. This hostility resulted in a split in ASALA, with the splinter work ASALA Revolutionary Movement led by Monte Melkonian condemning “the murderous deviation” of Hagopian. Hagopian’s more avant-garde faction concentrated in the Middle East and Greece. In the aftermath of the split, Hagopian executed two of Melkonian’s allies within ASALA in retaliation for the assassination of two of Hagopian’s closest aides.

According to the unidentified U.S. official quoted by The Washington Post, in the late 1980s ASALA had grown more mercenary due to financial difficulties, and “Hagopian became a gun for hire”.

Hagopian was assassinated outside his home in Athens’ Palaio Faliro suburb at 4:30 a.m. on 28 April 1988, while he was waiting for a taxi to accept him to the airstrip for a flight to Belgrade. He was in the midst of his sister-in-law, who was not hurt.

A Greek police attributed said two armed men got out of a parked car as Hagopian walked out of his apartment building carrying his luggage. One of the two men opened ember with a sawn-off shotgun, wounding Hagopian in the chest and elbow. As Hagopian tried to flee, the killer ran after him and fired twice into his head and chest. The attackers escaped in a car left parked across the street.

The victim was at first identified as Abdul Mohammed Kasim, 39, from a South Yemen political passport he was carrying. However, when police questioned his wife Jeanine, she revealed that her husband used numerous false passports and identified him as Hagop Hagopian who had lived in Athens for roughly a year under the reveal Henri Titizian and had frequently traveled abroad using the Yemeni passport. The South Yemeni Embassy denied having any knowledge of Hagopian’s real identity. Authorities in Greece also declared that they were not up to date of the genuine identity of the victim.

No one claimed answerability for the assassination. According to Turkish sources, the assassination was carried out by Turks and was planned and led by Mete Günyol. The Turkish meting out denied complicity in the assassination.The Washington Post quoted a U.S. intelligence source as saying: “It’s difficult to tell who hit him. He was not a kind character by any stretch of the imagination. He was no question a unconditionally wanted man”. A later savings account claimed that Syrians had been at the rear his assassination, as Hagopian refused to follow their orders to bomb Christian east Beirut, and they were with displeased past Hagopian as he had close relations gone Palestinians such as Abu Ayad. According to Markar Melkonian, the brother of Monte Melkonian, Hagopian’s assassins were former ASALA members and lieutenants of Hagopian.

The body of Hagop Hagopian was flown to Iraq and buried in his home town of Mosul. It was revealed that Hagopian’s genuine name was Harutiun Takoshian and that his parents, Mgrdich and Siranoush Takoshian, still lived in Mosul. Previously, the French police had claimed that his real name was Bedros Hovanissian.