Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia

Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)
Հայաստանի Ազատագրութեան Հայ Գաղտնի Բանակ (ՀԱՀԳԲ)
LeaderHagop Hagopian (1975–1988)
Dates of operation1975–1991 according to Turkish Intelligence (MİT)
Motives"To compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland."
Active regionsLebanon, Western Europe, Greece, United States, Turkey
IdeologyMarxism–Leninism
Armenian nationalism
United Armenia
Left-wing nationalism
Revolutionary socialism
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
Notable attacksParis Turkish consulate attack (1981)
Esenboğa Airport attack (1982)
Orly Airport attack (1983)
Allies Greece
 Cyprus
 Armenia
 PLO
 PFLP
PKK
 Syria
Lebanese National Resistance Front
Opponents Turkey
 Israel
 Azerbaijan
Lebanese Forces
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Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was a militant organization active between 1975 and the 1990s whose stated goal was "to compel the Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility for the Armenian genocide in 1915, pay reparations, and cede territory for an Armenian homeland." ASALA itself and other sources described it as a guerilla and armed organization. Some sources, including the United States Department of State, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan listed it as a terrorist organization.

The principal goal of ASALA was to establish a United Armenia that would include the formerly Armenian-inhabited six vilayets of the Ottoman Empire (Western Armenia) and Soviet Armenia. The group sought to claim the area (called Wilsonian Armenia) that was promised to the Armenians by American President Woodrow Wilson in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, following the Armenian genocide, during which Ottoman Turks murdered 1.5 million Armenians, which Turkey openly denies.

ASALA attacks and assassinations resulted in the deaths of 46 people and 299 injured, mostly individuals serving the Turkish government. The organization has also claimed responsibility for more than 50 bomb attacks. Suffering from internal schisms, the group was relatively inactive in the 1990s, although in 1991 it claimed an unsuccessful attack on the Turkish ambassador to Hungary. ASALA's last and most recent attack took place in Brussels in 1997, where a group of militants claiming to be ASALA bombed the Turkish Embassy in the city. The organization has not engaged in militant activity since then. The group's mottos were "The armed struggle and right political line are the way to Armenia" and "Viva the revolutionary solidarity of oppressed people!"