Bahadır Demir

Bahadır Demir (March 9, 1942 – January 27, 1973) was a Turkish diplomat who was assassinated by Armenian-origin US citizen Gourgen Yanikian in Santa Barbara, California in 1973.

Early life

He was born on 9 March 1942 in Istanbul. After finishing Robert College and the Faculty of Political Science of Ankara University in 1967, he began serving in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His first foreign appointment was to Los Angeles, California as a vice consul.

Assassination

On January 27, 1973, the 77-year-old Gourgen Yanikian, under the alias of an Iranian man named Yaniki, met with consul general Mehmet Baydar and Demir at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, promising to make a gift of a bank note and a painting (by G.Fureli) stolen from the Ottoman palace more than a century earlier to Turkey.[1] As the three men began to converse over lunch, Yanikian revealed to them that he was not Iranian, but Armenian and a survivor of the Armenian Genocide.[2] Baydar dropped the bank note in anger and a heated exchange took place. Yanikian then pulled a Luger pistol from a hollowed-out book and emptied nine rounds at them, hitting them in the shoulders and chest, though none of the wounds were lethal. As Baydar and Demir lay on the ground Yanikian pulled out a Browning pistol from a drawer and fired two rounds into the head of each man, "what he considered mercy shots."[3]

That neither man was alive during the genocide "mattered little to Yanikian," according to journalist Michael Bobelian."[4] Baydar was survived by his wife ( whom he had married 20 months ago).[5]

Legacy

One primary school in Istanbul,[6] and a street in Ankara are named after Bahadır Demir.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "UPI. Author Yanikian Refuses To Plea." Beaver County Times. Feb. 27, 1973.
  2. ↑ Bobelian. Children of Armenia, p. 147.
  3. ↑ Bobelian. Children of Armenia, pp. 147-48.
  4. ↑ Bobelian. Children of Armenia, p. 146.
  5. ↑ Bilal Şimşir:Şehit Diplomatlarımız, Bilgi yayınevi, İstanbul, Vol 1, ISBN 975-494-925-5 .82
  6. ↑ School page
  7. ↑ Map page
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