The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-28
Church Murder is
Part Of Plot Aimed
At Soviet Armenia
White Guardist Party
Seeks Control of the
Armenian Church

NEW YORK-The murder of Arch
bishop Leon Tourain Sunday before
the altar of the Holy Cross Armenian
Apostolic Church in New York, was
the elimination Of a fierce struggle
between two American bourgeois par
ties for control OF the Armenian
Church and mass organizations in
North and South America.
The Armchair Tashnak Party. of
which group the Archblshop's slayers
are members, was the ruler of Ar
menia after the overthrow of the Car
until the Armenian workers and peas
ants, led by the Communist Party, es-
tabhshed the Armenian Soviet in Nov,
1920.
While in power, Tashnak faithfully
served the white guard Kolchak and
British Imperialism. Today Tashnak,
expelled from Armenia, spreads its
tentacles throughout Syria, Bulgaria,
Greece, France, and the entire West
ern Hemisphere in the service of i'm
perialism against the Soviet Union.
The murder of the Archbishop for
recognizing Soviet Armenia as the
homeland of his followers, is typical
of the organized terror melted out by
Tashnak to Armenian intellectuals
and workers who defend Soviet Ar
menia.
A year ago a plot by Tashnak to
kill the representative of Soviet Ar
menia in Greece was frustrated,
thanks to the vigilance OF workers
defense forces.
In the United States, as well, as
wherever it has branches in other
countries, Tashnak attempts to use
the tri-colored flag of the old republic
as demonstration against Soviet Ar
menia.
Controversy Of Long Standing
old tri-co,or or the new Soviet flag,
the white hammer and sickle on
red background, was to be hoisted at
an Armenian Day celebration at the
Chicago Worlds Fair, July 2, was the
forerunner Of Sundays murder.
BY vote Of 1850 against $50 the
Chicago gathering decided on the So
Wet flag. Archbishop Tourain, who
was the only speaker, was forced to
declare he would not speak unless the
tri-colored flag was taken down. This
was done and Tasflnak Immediately
set itself to GUST the Archbishop.
At the annual convention of the
Armenian churches in September,
last, the Tashnak delegates, who were
in the minority, split the convention,
ousted the Dish op and elected sep
arate central committee. The ma
iority delegates kept the Archbishop
in power and elected new central
committee for the Armenian churches.
Since then Tashnak has attempted
to split the Armenian churches every
where. But even the most backward
sections of the Armenian workers
boycoted those churches in the hands
Of the Tashnak white guards.
Admitted Religious Freedom in Soviet
Union
The Archbishop, who insisted that
the headquarters of the Armenian
Churches of the world was in Soviet
Armenia and that there was religious
freedom in the Soviet, was member
Of an Armenian Liberal Party con-
troued by the Armenian Turkish
bourgeoisie. This party had failed in
its attempt to get important conces-
sions from the Tashnak when the lat
ter held power in Armenia, and be-
came the bitter enemy of Tashnak
The church actions of Tashnak are
merely part OF its whole campaign
against the Soviet Union. The CAPT
talist press is doing its utmost to con-
ceal the real anti-Soviet terror ring
Tashnak represents.
The Armenian masses who have
long suffered the pogroms instigated
by the Turkish bourgeoisie, are
throughout the world hailing Soviet
Armenia. Archbishop Tourain, him
self member Of the same Turkish
class that brought about the pogroms,
was finally forced by the pressure of
the Armenian masses to accept Soviet
Armenia as the free homeland of the
Armenian people.