Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the United States for allowing an Armenian-American assassin behind the murder of the Turkish consul in 1982 to leave the country.
"We consider this decision regarding the aforementioned terrorist as a grave mistake and a concession to terrorism and we once again condemn it," Tanju Bilgiç, the spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, said in the written statement.
The assassin, Hampig ‘Harry’ Sassounian, murdered Turkey’s Consul General in Los Angeles Kemal Arıkan on January 28, 1982. That day, Sassounian and an accomplice, Krikor Saliba, gunned down Arıkan at a stop light in Los Angeles before being arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2002, an L.A. court allowed for Sassounian to become eligible for parole, but it was repeatedly denied until finally being granted in 2021. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken lamented the court decision to allow Sassounian to go free and the Turkish Foreign Ministry criticized the move.
Armenian media outlets report that Sassounian has arrived in Armenia. But it remains unclear if the United States deported Sassounian, as alleged by Turkey, or if he left by his own volition after receiving parole.