Between 1915 and 1917 the Armenian people, then under Ottoman Turkish rule, were subjected to deportations and massacres which resulted in the death of over one million Armenians and the loss of their historic homeland. Despite the solemn promise of world governments to hold Ittihadist leaders personally responsible for this crime against humanity, the criminals responsible for the act of genocide were spared prosecution for the sake of political expediency.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation determined that this crime should not remain unpunished. Soghomon Tehiirian, a young man who had seen his family and town destroyed during the Genocide and who had escaped death accidentally, was the first to execute the act of popular justice. Talaat Pasha, the minister of interior of the Ittihadist ruling triumvirate and the one man held most responsible for the development of the genocide plans, was assassinated in Berlin on March 15, 1921.
During the historic trial held soon after, an initially hostile German public and jury discovered the horrors for which Talaat had been responsible and the absence of any other form of justice. Tehlirian, who had readily admitted his responsibility for the assassination, was found not guilty. He is widely regarded as a national hero.
In addition to eyewitness accounts of the horrors of the Genocide, the Tehlirian trial provided a unique arena where a legalistic method of interpreting justice was challenged by a need for a higher sense of justice.