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27-577: Armenian Revolutionary Army is thought to be the continuation of the organization Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) under a different name. As JCAG stopped taking responsibility in communiques from 1983 on, it was the Armenian Revolutionary Army that carried on with the military activities. A library in Lisbon, Portugal was bombed in 1970. This was the first attack claimed by

54-673: A part of the Armenian Diaspora, since they have been living in their historical homeland for more than four thousand years. They are not considered part of the diaspora either by the Ministry of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan : "Diaspora represents all the Armenians who live beyond the Armenian Highland. In this context, we have singled out the Armenians of Istanbul and those living on the territory of Western Armenia. Those people have inhabited

81-450: Is in charge of coordinating and developing Armenia's relations with the diaspora. In Armenian, the diaspora is referred to as spyurk ( pronounced [spʰʏrkʰ] ), spelled սփիւռք in classical orthography and սփյուռք in reformed orthography . In the past, the word gaghut ( գաղութ pronounced [ɡɑˈʁutʰ] ) was used mostly to refer to the Armenian communities outside

108-658: The Armenian Apostolic Church despite pressure from official authorities. A growing number of Armenians migrated to Cilicia during the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries as a result of the Seljuk Turk invasions. After the fall of the kingdom to the Mamelukes and loss of Armenian statehood in 1375, up to 150,000 went to Cyprus , the Balkans , and Italy . Although an Armenian diaspora existed during Antiquity and

135-542: The Armenian homeland . It is borrowed from the Aramaic (Classical Syriac) cognate of Hebrew galut (גלות). The Armenian diaspora has been present for over 1,700 years. The modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed after World War I as a result of the Armenian genocide . According to Randall Hansen , "Both in the past and today, the Armenian communities around the world have developed in significantly different ways within

162-642: The Middle Ages , it grew in size due to emigration from the Ottoman Empire , Iran , Russia , and the Caucasus . The Armenian diaspora is divided into two communities – those communities from Ottoman Armenia (or Western Armenia ) and those communities which are from the former Soviet Union , independent Armenia and Iran (or Eastern Armenia ). Armenians in Turkey , such as Hrant Dink , do not consider themselves

189-762: The United States and Canada . In the United States, the rate of immigration increased after the Immigration Act was passed in 1965. The outbreak of the civil War in Lebanon in 1975 and the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran during 1978 were factors which pushed Armenians to immigrate. The 1980 U.S. Census reported that 90 percent of the immigration to the United States was undertaken by Iranian-Armenians during

216-644: The attack on the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa . Three ARA gunmen who attacked the Turkish embassy in Ottawa , Canada were Kevork Marachelian, 35, of LaSalle , Quebec , Rafi Panos Titizian, 27, of Scarborough , Ontario , and Ohannes Noubarian, 30, of Montreal . They surrendered to police. ARA's last attack occurred in 1985. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide Justice Commandos of

243-711: The attempted murder of the Turkish ambassador to Switzerland . In 1982, an attempt to bomb the building of Turkish consulate in Philadelphia was stopped by the FBI . The leader of the group, Vicken Hovsepian, was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment, a sentence confirmed in appeal. In January 2001, another leader of the American ARF, and former chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Mourad Topalian ,

270-471: The ARA. But as the next attack claimed by the same-named organization occurred only in 1983, many have questioned if this was actually related to the organization established in the 1980s as a continuation of JCAG or whether they were two different organizations happening to use the same name ARA. In 1983, Armenian Revolutionary Army claimed responsibility for an attack on the Turkish Embassy attache Dursun Aksoy who

297-615: The ARF organizes international ceremonies in honor of the five ARA members who attacked the Turkish embassy in Portugal , especially in Glendale , Los Angeles , in New Jersey , Beirut , Paris and Décines-Charpieu . After three ARA perpetrators of attack against Turkish embassy in Ottawa were sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years, ARF attacked the verdict. Under

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324-462: The Armenian Genocide ( JCAG ) ( Armenian : Հայկական Ցեղասպանութեան Արդարութեան Մարտիկներ, ՀՑԱՄ ) was an Armenian militant organization active from 1975 to 1987. JCAG conducted an international campaign of attacks against Turkish representatives and interests, primarily in Europe and North America , killing numerous attachés of the Turkish government . JCAG's stated reason for these attacks

351-524: The Armenian Genocide (JCAG) carried out attacks from 1975 to 1987, and according to Gary LaFree the peak of their attacks occurred in 1980. The existence of JCAG was discovered in May 1976, when a member was killed by his own bomb in the headquarters of ARF in Paris . It was confirmed when French political scientist Gaïdz Minassian was allowed to consult the archives of ARF for his doctoral thesis. In several occasions,

378-619: The East Coast. The Armenian diaspora grew considerably both during and after the First World War due to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire . In the year 1910, over 5,500 Armenians immigrated to the United States, and by 1913, 9,355 more Armenians entered the North American borders. As World War I approached, the rate of Armenian immigration rose to about 60,000. In 1920 and until the Immigration Act of 1924 , 30,771 Armenians came to

405-593: The Sassounian solidarity groups. French ARF organized a demonstration in front of US consulate in Lyon , in protestation against Sassounian's arrest. The ARF also supported Harutyun Krikor Levonian and Alexander Elbekyan, who were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for the assassination of Galip Balkar , Turkish ambassador to Yugoslavia , in Belgrade , and Max Hraïr Kilndjian, sentenced to two years imprisonment as an accessory in

432-540: The United States; the immigrants were predominantly widowed women, children, and orphans. Although many Armenians perished during the Armenian genocide , some of the Armenians who managed to escape, established themselves in various parts of the world. By 1966, around 40 years after the start of the Armenian genocide, 2 million Armenians still lived in Armenia, while 330,000 Armenians lived in Russia, and 450,000 Armenians lived in

459-676: The constraints and opportunities found in varied host cultures and countries." In the fourth century, Armenian communities already existed outside Greater Armenia . Diasporic Armenian communities emerged in the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires, and they also defended the eastern and northern borders of the Byzantine Empire . In order to populate the less populated areas of Byzantium, Armenians were relocated to those regions. Some Armenians converted to Greek Orthodoxy while retaining Armenian as their primary language, whereas others remained in

486-510: The lands for thousands of years, and they are not considered Diaspora [representatives]." Before 1870, 60 Armenian immigrants settled in New England. Armenian immigration rose to 1,500 by the end of the 1880s, and rose to 2,500 in the mid-1890s due to massacres caused by the Ottoman Empire. Armenians who immigrated to the United States before WWI were primarily from Asia Minor and settled on

513-493: The name Greek-Bulgarian-Armenian Front, and is believed to have unofficially dissolved the following year. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) and the following Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA) are generally thought to be the armed wing of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a left-wing Armenian nationalist and Pan-Armenian political party established in the 19th century, which at

540-740: The name of "Greek-Bulgarian-Armenian Front", the JCAG perpetrated two attacks in Australia : the bombing of Melbourne's Turkish consulate , for which ARF member Levon Demirian was sentenced and served 10 years in prison, and the bombing of a mail sorting facility in Brisbane , on January 19, 1987. 25 total dead Armenian diaspora The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside Armenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout

567-612: The official newspapers of ARF in the United States , France and Lebanon justified the "armed struggle" and published official communiqués of JCAG. The legal branches of the ARF fundraised to pay the lawyer costs of arrested JCAG members, the most famous case being Harry Sassounian , who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the Turkish general consul in Los Angeles . According to Dashnak newspaper Asbarez (October 15, 1983), several dozens of thousands of Armenians (ARF sympathisers and militants) participated to

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594-669: The time sought the independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union . The JCAG and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), a Marxist-Leninist group, were the two major Armenian groups who carried out attacks mostly against Turkish targets in retaliation for the Armenian genocide in 1915; their goals were the recognition of the genocide by the Turkish government and the establishment of an independent Armenian state that would have included parts of Turkey. The ARF

621-458: The world. However, the modern Armenian diaspora was largely formed as a result of World War I , when the genocide which was committed by the Ottoman Empire forced Armenians who were living in their homeland to flee from it or risk being killed. Another wave of emigration started during the dissolution of the Soviet Union . The High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs established in 2019

648-541: Was gunned down in Brussels. ARA took responsibility for the 1983 Turkish embassy attack in Lisbon against the Turkish embassy in Lisbon on 27 July 1983. It resulted in the death of 7 people, including all 5 attackers known in Armenian sources as "The Lisbon five" (Setrak Ajamian, 19 years old; Ara Kuhrjulian, 20; Sarkis Abrahamian, 21; Simon Yahniyan, 21, and Vache Daghlian, 19). On 12 March 1985, ARA claimed responsibility for

675-580: Was instrumental in the creation of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918, which existed for two years until it was annexed by the Soviet Union, the successor state of the Russian Empire which had previously ruled eastern Armenia. After the Soviets came to power, the ARF leadership was exiled, where the organization maintained its existence internationally through the Armenian diaspora . Justice Commandos of

702-508: Was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment for illegal storing of weapons and explosives for JCAG. JCAG's activities were concentrated in European and North American countries, targeting Turkish interests, mainly the assassination of Turkish diplomats . In 1983, the JCAG took the name of " Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA)", and like before, ARF-affiliated press published ARA communiqués as well as articles supporting its aims. Every year

729-489: Was the establishment of an independent Armenia in historical Armenian areas and official recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey. By 1983, JCAG is generally thought to have transformed into the Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA) as either a renaming or continuation, with communiques and military activities claimed under that name until 1985. The organization committed a single attack in 1986 under

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