Armenian National Committee Terrorists in the USA

What happened?
Past Terrorist Attacks that were Forgotten
Connections to Powerful Politicians

In 1996, a terrorist arms storage in Bedford, Ohio, was loaded with dynamites near a kindergarten, the dynamites were so old that they were extremely unstable and about to explode. The dynamites were stored there in the 1980s when ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) and the JCAG (Justice Commandoes for the Armenian Genocide) were active in assassinating and bombings against Turks in the United States. Their goals were to seek revenge for the killings of Armenians in 1915 that is still disputed today and is labeled as the Armenian Genocide.

What happened?
ATF agent Pete Elliot investigated 100 pounds of volatile explosives and weapons stored in a storage room in Bedford, Ohio near a kindergarten and gas station at the outskirts of town. He found out through the small clues inside the locker that a Lucy Topalian had payed for the storage room. After finding Lucy Topalian, Pete Elliot asked her to call Mourad Topalian since Lucy said she had not known what was in the storage. Mourad Topalian bought airplane tickets to meet her in a cafe.

In the meeting, Mourad Topalian explained to Lucy Topalian that the FBI is after him because he is "the head of the Armenian National Committee."

The Armenian National Committee of America is the political branch of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation that was established in 1890 inside the Ottoman Empire for the purpose of rebelling against the Ottomans to create a "free Armenia".

Investigators learned that as early as 1981, the FBI was tracking an underground terrorist network of Armenians who were targeting Turks.

Past Terrorist Attacks that were Forgotten
The terrorist attacks committed by the organizations of ASALA, ANCA, and JCAG, during the 1980s caused the deaths of many American citizens as well as Turks who were not even alive in 1915 to have committed any crimes against Armenians. However, that did not stop them from justifying the killings of these innocent civilians. There were serious bombing attacks near the United Nations in New York City, Los Angeles, and London.

Connections to Powerful Politicians
Topalian had connections to Congressmen and lobbied for US aid for Armenia, a nation that has been under Soviet rule for 70 years and currently has strong relations with Iran. Today, Armenia receives the most US aid per capita using none other than American tax-payers money.

Topalian pled guilty to storing stolen explosives and possession of machine guns. In January, 2001, he was given the maximum sentence of 37 months in prison. In a letter to the judge, Topalian said the locker was supposed to be used to store records of people contributing to the Armenian cause. Topalian insisted that the lockers were not opened for 15 years.

Topalian continued a hate campaign against agent Pete Elliot claiming that he had weakened the "Armenian cause".

Topalian had visited the White House half a dozen times during Bill Clinton's term in office. Recently, he had visited Capitol Hill along with other ANCA staff members to lobby for the Armenian Genocide Resolution. The Armenian Genocide thesis is still widely disputed by historians world-wide.

The lessons that terrorists never seem to learn is that two wrongs don't make a right. The fact that the ANCA was not investigated to the full extent of the law and Mourad Topalian received a light 37 month sentence and had been released in 2003, shows that we need to have stricter investigations for terrorists, even if the attacks were decades ago.

Currently, the Armenian National Committee of America continues to lobby Washington for recognition of the Armenian Genocide and US aid (most recently a $90 million dollar package) for Armenia.