In a court of Berlin in the year of grace 1921…

The Judge
What’s your surname?

The defendant
Tehlirian

The Judge
Your name?

The defendant
Soghomon

The Judge
Date of your birth?

The defendant
April 2nd 1897

The Judge
Place of your birth?

The defendant
Parakish, near the city of Erzincan.
The Judge
In the Ottoman Empire…

The defendant
Erza was the main fireplace of the Armenians within the ancient kingdom of Armenia.

The Judge
We are not asking you to remake history; simply to answer our questions.

The defendant
In this case allow me to tell you that the Ottoman Empire will die soon.

The Judge
Politics have no place in my court.

The defendant
Then, I will be allowed to leave it.

The Judge
You are accused of a crime against Talaat Pasha.

Theodor Niemeyer
Mr. Soghomon Tehlirian has never rejected this accusation.

The Judge
Does he consider himself guilty of this?

The defendant
No. I haven’t done anything but my duty.
The Judge
Murdering a man?

The defendant
Talaat was an executioner!

The Judge
Please! Quiet! On March 15th of the year of grace 1921 you took the liberty to kill with one revolver bullet, in the city of Berlin, in the daylight and in presence of several witnesses. Do you dispute the facts?

The defendant
Absolutely not! On the contrary, I claim them.

Theodor Niemeyer
You see, your Honor, my client doesn’t dispute anything.

The Judge
This is a fact! So, which is the position of your defense?

Theodor Niemeyer
To answer this question I will have to go back to the Operation Nemesis.

The Judge
What is this about?

Theodor Niemeyer
This action is being organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation for the execution of the sentences of the courts, in case they have adjudicated in absentia.

The Judge
Which right, Mr. Counsel?

Theodor Niemeyer
The one of the humanity!

The Judge
Which right are you talking about?

Theodor Niemeyer
About the one which concerns the future.

The Judge
I don’t understand you, explain yourself.

Theodor Niemeyer
Mr. Soghomon Tehlirian is a survivor! He survived such a total, such a systematic, such an organized massacre that this word is not sufficient! But let’s let the jurists of the future to find the just word. In any case, we have to do with a crime against humanity.

The judge
Be more accurate, Mr. Counsel.

Theodor Niemeyer
Talaat Pasha ordered the systematic killing of Armenian men, women and children with no exception.

The judge
Is this your justification?

Theodor Niemeyer
Mr. Soghomon Tehlirian survived, but saw his people crushed by the barbarity of the Ottoman Empire.

The judge
And this, according to you, gave him the right to kill Mr. Talaat Pasha.

Theodor Niemeyer
I am not talking about a right, your Honor.

The judge
Yet, this is the proper place for this.

Theodor Niemeyer
To talk about a duty every place is proper! Your Honor, can you imagine the atrocities committed?

The judge
With difficulty, I admit. But this is not our purpose; because, I very well imagine the murder of the victim.

Theodor Niemeyer
This is exactly the problem. The crime committed against the Armenian people is simply unthinkable for a man like you or me. Still, this was planned by Talaat Pasha.

The judge
So, you accuse him of having committed a crime against humanity.

Theodor Niemeyer
Exactly, your Honor.

The judge
Even, do you believe that we may use this fact to commit a murder against an individual?

Theodor Niemeyer
On our part there is no wish to deny the murder of Talaat Pasha; you have well understood this, your Honor. Our view is different…

The judge
I think I have established it, Mr. Counsel… Continue.

Theodor Niemeyer
What are important in this case are not the facts, which no one here disputes, but the reasons. Can you imagine the mental state of a survivor after having seen the fields of horror provoked by the will of the Ottoman apparatus?

The judge
I do my best, Mr. Counsel.

Theodor Niemeyer
This is not enough. For, we are in Berlin, in a country of law, which respects individuals. Whereas, in the Ottoman Empire there are orders and nothing else respected. If a human life is considered useless, it’s simply eliminated. Only that here we are talking about hundreds of thousands of dead.
Do you understand, your Honor?

The judge
I am trying to understand your defense.

Theodor Niemeyer
Yet, things are simple. Imagine a forest on fire, your Honor, a forest of hundreds of thousands trees. You believe that the analogy stops there. But this isn’t the case, your Honor, on the contrary!

The judge
What’s worse that I have to imagine?

Theodor Niemeyer
A fire in the forest is naturally spread without any special intervention. While in the Ottoman Empire it was necessary to give an order to spread the massacring of the Armenian people and this order was given by Talaat Pasha… But there is something even worse, your Honor… Death is not spread in this way among the dead.

The judge
Where are you getting at, Mr. Counsel?

Theodor Niemeyer
This crime against humanity which has been committed is even more horrible. Imagine a victim in the place of every tree. And all these victims were massacred, raped, burnt. There is thus this detail which makes the whole difference.

The judge
Which one?

Theodor Niemeyer
Each one of these trees was necessary to be burnt one by one. Can you realize what kind of hatred you should bear in you to burn a tree and see it being burnt and to move on to the next one? Can you imagine this for hundreds of thousand times, your Honor?

The judge
No, this is impossible for us.

Theodor Niemeyer
And yet this is the executed order of Talaat Pasha who committed this unthinkable for a human being like you crime. This is the reason why a survivor became a just, your Honor.