Levon Ekmekjyan – Operation Karin, ASALA

As many of you know, on January 28, 1983, ASALA fighter Levon Ekmekjyan was executed in a Turkish prison. He was one of the fighters who carried out the Karin operation on August 7, 1982, against the fascist Turkish state in its very heart – at the Ankara Esenboğa Airport.

For 30 years, Turkey would not allow the retrieval of the remains of Levon Ekmekjyan for reburial in accordance with the Christian rite. And only in 2013, the appeal of the hero’s brother on the transport of his remains to France was satisfied.

After that, another three long years would pass. And finally, on January 8, 2016, the remains of the Armenian warrior were sent by the Turkish authorities to his family in Paris.

And now, the worst thing.

The family sent the remains for DNA testing. Levon’s brother, Dro Ekmekjyan, would then reveal the results. They are shocking. The remains belong to a woman of about 55 years. In addition, it turned out that some of the bones are not human at all. An examination showed that these bones belong to an animal – a dog or a wolf…

The attack on the Ankara Esenboğa Airport was committed by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) on August 7, 1982. The direct perpetrators of the attack were Zohrab Sargsyan and Levon Ekmekjyan. They detonated a bomb in the middle of a crowded waiting room and then opened fire from machine guns at passport control officers and passengers who were waiting in line to board a KLM flight.

The militants then ran into the cafeteria where they took 20 hostages. During the storming of the cafeteria, Turkish special forces killed Sargsyan, while Ekmekjyan was wounded and arrested.

As a result of the attack and the ensuing two-hour shootout, 9 people were killed and 72 were injured.

ASALA claimed responsibility for the attack and stated that the attack was a protest against the “occupation of their lands by the Turkish fascists.”

The ASALA statement also said that responsibility for “innocent victims” was on “enemies of peaceful peoples – the Turkish fascist government, NATO, and the United States.” ASALA announced that it would launch attacks against representative offices of several Western countries if they did not release 85 Armenians imprisoned there.

When the Turkish police informed the arrested Levon Ekmekjyan that he and his accomplice had killed 9 people, he yelled: “Not enough! We killed too few! Too few to avenge 1.5 million of my innocently killed ancestors!”

The court found Ekmekjyan guilty and sentenced him to death on September 7, 1982. Ekmekjyan’s appeal was dismissed, and he was hanged on January 29, 1983.

Grigor Narinyan