Although the majority of the Armenian terrorist operations in the United States were directed against Turkish diplomatic, commercial, or cultural targets, attacks were also carried out against the property or interests of other foreign governments that had imprisoned Armenian terrorists in their countries.^[4] The terrorists' campaign reached its peak in 1982, when Kemal Arikan, the Turkish Consul-General in Los Angeles, and Orhan Gunduz, the honorary Turkish Consul in Boston, were assassinated. Five young Armenians were later arrested in Boston while en route to Philadelphia to bomb the office of the honorary Turkish Consul, Kanat Arbay. Since 1982, the only incident connected to Armenian terrorism was the discovery in January 1983 of nine sophisticated pipebombs in an Armenian-owned bakery in Anaheim, California.
The lack of any further Armenian terrorist operations in the United States is in part a result of the harsh prison sentence handed down to Hampig Sassounian, the young Armenian-American who was convicted of Arikan's murder. Sassounian received a life sentence with no possibility of parole. During his trial, the defense focused on Sassounian's political motivations, but Sassounian was judged no differently from any other individual convicted of committing a violent criminal act. In this respect, his sentence had a significant impact on the large Armenian community that has established a commercially successful and politically influential diaspora in the United States. Despite expressions of sympathy and understanding of the terrorists' goals and motivations, the Armenian community has offered no explicit support of their violent actions. The outcome of Sassounian's trial underscored not only the way in which terrorist acts are judged in this country, but also the negative connotations and associations of such violence for the law-abiding Armenian-American community.

Armenian terrorist groups were responsible for a short-lived wave of terrorism in the U. S. from 1980 to 1982. The most active was the international Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide, a new (1972) creation of the old-line Armenian Revolutionary Federation. North American members of the Commandos carried out half-a-dozen attacks, including the assassination of the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles. Other attacks, notably the May 1982 murder of the honorary Turkish Consul-General in Boston, were claimed by the Marxist Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia. The abrupt end of Armenian violence in the United States can be attributed to the arrest of six activites in 1982, and the harsh prison sentence given Hampig Sassounian, convicted of the Los Angeles murder.

Armenian Nationalist Terrorism
Armenian nationalists have directed their terrorism mainly against Turks... In January 1982, the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide (JCAG) — a splinter group of the ASALA — assasinated the Turkish consulate general in Los Angeles. In May 1982, the honorary Turkish consulate general was assasinated in Boston. Later that year, the group's activities terminated with the arrest of its members, and Hampig Sassounian received a life sentence for committing the Los Angeles murder.

Armenian terrorism
…On January 4, 1984, Hampig Sassounian, a member of the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG), was convicted on local murder charges in the first degree and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Sassounian was arrested for the January 28, 1982, assassination of the Turkish General, Kemal Arikan, in Los Angeles, California. It should be noted that FBI investigation of this murder greatly contributed to the successful prosecution of Sassounian

After deliberating from November 28, 1983, to early 1984, a four-man, eight-woman jury found Armenian immigrant Hampig Sassounian, 20, of Pasadena, guilty of first-degree murder.

This began to change in 1975 when two Armenian terrorist groups—known as ASALA (the Armenian Army for the Secret Liberation of Armenia) and the JCAG (Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide)—emerged from the civil war then engulfing Lebanon.

Armenian Terrorism
On January 4, 1984, Hampik Sassounian, Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) co-assassin of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan, at Los Angeles, was convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court of first degree murder under "special circumstances" (ambushed victim) and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Armenian terrorists have carried out more than 200 attacks since their emergence in 1975, but only six of these have been staged in the United States. Indeed, there have been none in this country since 1982. The Armenian terrorists' targets in the United States have been mostly limited to Turkish diplomats (and their families), embassies and consulates, airline and tourist offices, and folk-dance troupes. The Armenian groups have rarely carried out indiscriminate bombing or shooting attacks in public places.

The three main Armenian terrorist groups are the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), the Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide (JCAG), and the Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA), an offshoot of the JCAG. Although their tactics and choice of targets differ somewhat, all three share the same goals: revenge for the events of 1915 (when the Armenian inhabitants of eastern Turkey were massacred); Turkish recognition of the genocide; and reparation payments from Turkey to the survivors and their families. To this end, 42 Turkish diplomats and members of their families have been assassinated since 1975. The terrorist groups are highly secretive, difficult to penetrate, and held together by strong ethnic bonds. The real and perceived sympathy emanating from the largely law-abiding Armenian community both in the United States and abroad is a crucial part of the terrorists' determination to carryon with their struggle.
The JCAG and the ARA restrict their attacks to Turkish targets, carrying out either discriminate, symbolic bombings (which rarely cause injury), assassinations of specific Turkish officials, or seizures of Turkish embassies and consulates. The ASALA uses these tactics and attacks the same types of targets, but has been far more indiscriminate, causing large numbers of civilian casualties among Turks and non-Turks alike. The ASALA has also carried out bombing campaigns against countries that arrest and incarcerate members of the group.
The first Armenian terrorist attacks in the United States occurred in October 1980, when the ASALA claimed credit for bombing attacks at the Turkish Mission to the U.N. in New York and a Turkish-owned travel agency in Hollywood, California, while a JCAG member firebombed the Bel Air, California, house of the Turkish consul-general. Three further bombings were mounted by ASALA terrorists against Swiss interests. Switzerland was targeted by the group in reprisal for the arrest and imprisonment of several ASALA members in that country. In June 1981, a bomb was planted by the JCAG at the Anaheim (California) Convention Center to disrupt a performance of a Turkish folk-dance troupe. The explosion did, in fact, lead to the cancellation of the performance. Six months later, another bomb caused extensive damage to the Turkish consulate in Beverly Hills on the eve of the visit of Turkey's ambassador to the United States. In May 1982, the ASALA bombed the Swiss Bank Corporation in New York, and three terrorists were arrested for attempting to blow up an Air Canada cargo building at Los Angeles International Airport in retaliation for the arrest a few days earlier of alleged Armenian terrorists in Toronto on charges of attempting to extort money from law-abiding Armenian Canadians to finance the ASALA's struggle.
The first terrorist assassination of a Turkish diplomat in the United States took place in January 1982, when Kemal Arikan, the Turkish consul-general in Los Angeles, was shot to death by two members of the JCAG. Then in May 1982, Orhan Gunduz, the honorary Turkish consul-general in Boston, was gunned down by a lone assailant. Once again, the JCAG claimed responsibility. Gunduz's assassination came only weeks after his shop had been bombed. Although this was the last Armenian terrorist operation actually perpetrated in the United States, in October 1982 police arrested five young Armenians in Boston en route to Philadelphia to blow up the office of the Turkish honorary consul, Kanat Arbay. The absence of any further Armenian terrorist operations in this country is probably the result of the harsh prison sentence handed down to one of Arikan's assassins by a California court.^[26]

^[26]Hampig Sassunian received a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

January 28, 1982. Shooting. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide. Los Angeles, California. Kemal Arikan, the Turkish consul, is assassinated while his car is stopped at a traffic light. Two men approach his car and begin shooting.

This afternoon a tragic event occurred in Los Angeles. The Turkish Consul General, Kemal Arikan, was assassinated in an apparent act of terrorism. I condemn this vicious act.