On this day...

July 27, 1983 - Lisbon, Portugal

Five Armenian gunmen - "The Lisbon Five" - storm the Turkish Embassy in Lisbon, killing a Portuguese law enforcement officer and wounding another. A Turkish security officer kills one gunman, Vatche Daghlian. Unable to take the Embassy chancery building, the four remaining gunmen, Setrak Ajemian, Ara Kuhrjulian, Sarkis Abrahamian and Simon Yahniyan, occupy the Embassy residence building, where they take the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Yurtsev Mihcioglu, and his family hostage. As the four remaining gunmen plant explosives in the residence building, the wife of the DCM, Cahide Mihcioglu, sets off one of the bombs, killing the JCAG terrorists and sacrificing herself. Her husband DCM Mihcioglu and son, Atasay, survive. The "Armenian Revolutionary Army" of the Justice Commandos of Armenian Genocide (JCAG) claims responsibility for the attack. JCAG threatens the Portuguese Prime Minister Mario Saores for the deaths of the five JCAG members.

ATAA condemns these acts of violence against innocent individuals and remembers these tragedies with great sorrow and deliberation to bring the perpetrators and their supporters to justice.

For more information: www.ataa.org/reference

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