Five Armenian Heroes Sacrificed Their Lives for Genocide Recognition

Gunmen identified as Armenians stormed the Turkish Ambassador’s residence here today and, after keeping Portuguese policemen at bay with gunfire for an hour and a half, blew it up. Seven people died in the attack – five gunmen, a hostage, and a policeman who had entered the residence during the siege.

The hostage was identified by Turkish Embassy officials as Cahide Mihcio@glu, the 42-year-old wife of the charge d’affaires. Her 17-year-old son was also taken hostage but escaped with a gunshot wound in the leg by leaping off the first-floor balcony of the blazing building shortly after the explosion. A second policeman was also wounded.

Four gunmen died in the explosion. The fifth had been shot and killed in the opening moments of the attack. A little-known Armenian group, the Armenian Revolutionary Army, said in a typewritten note delivered to news agencies here that it was responsible for the assault. The note arrived after the attack had begun.

It was the third act of terrorism claimed by Armenian extremist organizations in the last two weeks, marking a sudden upsurge in what they assert is a campaign to avenge massacres by the Turks under the Ottoman Empire and to gain self-determination for the Armenian people.

On July 15 a bomb exploded in a suitcase at a Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport in Paris, killing seven people and wounding more than 50. A group calling itself the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia said it had planted the bomb, and French policemen are holding a 29-year-old Syrian citizen of Armenian descent who they say has confessed.

The day before the Orly bombing, the Armenian Revolutionary Army – the group involved in the attack here – said it had been responsible for the shooting death of a Turkish diplomat, Dursun Aksoy, in Brussels.

In the note delivered today to the offices of Reuters and The Associated Press, the group said it had turned to ”armed struggle” because peaceful means for ”the pursuit of our just cause” had failed. ‘

‘The wall of silence built around our cause was too thick to be pierced,” it said.

The note ended: ”We have decided to blow up this building and remain under the collapse. This is not suicide nor an expression of insanity, but rather our sacrifice to the altar of freedom.”

The blast, apparently from explosives carried into the two-story, concrete-and-glass residence by the gunmen in what witnesses described as a large leather bag, wrecked the building and set it ablaze. Tried First to Take Embassy
Witnesses said the gunmen originally tried to seize the embassy, set back from the tree-lined Avenida de Descobertas in the exclusive Restelo suburb of Lisbon. But they were driven off by gunfire from a Turkish security guard, who shot and killed one of them, and ran down a cobbled driveway to take the Ambassador’s residence instead.

The family of the charge d’affaires, Mustafa Mihcioglu, had moved into the house only recently for reasons of security. The Ambassador, Ismail Soysal, had completed his tour of duty and returned to Turkey on July 17.
Witnesses said the gunmen arrived at about 10:30 A.M. in two cars, a red one that remained out front and a white Ford Escort that entered the driveway. The Ford Escort aroused the suspicions of a Portuguese security guard because it had been there the day before.

On that occasion, according to Turkish Embassy sources, two men emerged from the car. When challenged by the Ambassador’s bodyguard, they said they had come for visas. But when asked to produce their passports, they left hurriedly. Turks Asked for Extra Protection
Because of this incident, the Turkish Embassy requested extra police protection from the Portuguese authorities, the sources said. One additional policeman was stationed on the road outside early today.
The Turkish bodyguard was alerted by the Portuguese security man when the white car returned today. As he approached it, an exchange of gunfire took place.

One gunman died on the spot and a policeman was wounded by submachine-gun fire.

The gunmen then regrouped to take the nearby residence, where they found their hostages. A force of some 170 riot policemen surrounded the building, cordoning off the area and hiding behind cars and trees to avoid sporadic gunfire from within. One report said the gunmen had threatened over the telephone to blow up the building if the police tried to retake it.

What happened next is not altogether clear, but at about noon an explosion occurred. It was followed by two or three lesser explosions, witnesses said, and the building went up in flames. Cabinet in Emergency Session

The Portuguese Cabinet, under the new Prime Minister, Mario Soares, went into an emergency session during the siege and decided to send in an elite police detachment, the Special Operational Group. It was the first time that this British-trained force, which was formed last autumn, had been used.

The group began an assault on the burning building at 1:40 P.M. and found five bodies on the upper floor. One of them turned out to be a policeman, identified as Manuel Pacheco.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said later that the policeman, who was familiar with the embassy, had rushed to the scene after hearing about the attack over his radio. He climbed into the room where the gunmen had taken refuge, the spokesman said. Whether this might have prompted them to detonate the explosion could not be determined.

The ministry said later that the two cars were filled with food and explosives, suggesting that the gunmen had laid in preparations for a long siege.

The last attack on Turkish diplomats in Lisbon occurred in June 1982. Then the commercial attache, Erkut Ackbay, was shot and killed outside his home. His wife was wounded in the attack, for which Armenian terrorists claimed responsibility.

One embassy official theorized that the terrorists had chosen Lisbon because it was ”an easy target.” The embassy, built 10 years ago, has seven full-time employees.