03/16/2015
Fans of Bogosian’s one-man shows (Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead) will recognize his provocative sensibility in this book’s very first paragraph, in which he recalls being told by his grandfather, “If you ever meet a Turk, kill him.” Bogosian doesn’t linger on this advice, given to him when he was four; he presents it as an alarming but not unusual consequence of the 1915 Armenian genocide, in which many members of his family were murdered. From there, Bogosian drops the memoir and launches into an engrossing, heavily-researched account of Operation Nemesis, the code name for an international campaign, carried out by Armenian survivors, to assassinate the various Turkish heads of state who orchestrated the genocide. The details read like a Hollywood epic, but Bogosian plays it straight, letting the facts tell the story without sensationalizing or romanticizing. Though the author is well known as a playwright, actor, and novelist (Perforated Heart), this is his first work of nonfiction, and the book’s scope is ambitious: it also covers centuries of Armenian history and the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. For those familiar with this terrain, Bogosian has uncovered a little-known aspect of it in fascinating detail. For everyone else, this is a highly readable introduction. (May)
"Absorbing reading.... To his great credit, Bogosian recognizes [the moral contradiction] and refuses to portray Tehlirian or any of the other members of his group as heroes. He's aware of the gravitas of his story and the need to set it in context....Where it matters most he delivers: in his gripping action accounts of Nemesis at work, and in the sober assessment of its terrible aftermath."—Joseph Kanon, New York Times Book Review
"Hitler asked, 'Who remembers the Armenians?' Eric Bogosian, that's who. Read his potent, action-packed account of how a little known assassination plot harkens back to a world-historical genocide and so will you. So take that, Hitler."—Sarah Vowell, author of The Wordy Shipmates and Assassination Vacation
"A dark and compelling tale of blood vengeance. In Operation Nemesis, Eric Bogosian tells the remarkable story of how a small group of powerless, post-war assassins sought revenge against the all-powerful masterminds of the Armenian genocide."—Annie Jacobsen, author of Operation Paperclip
"Absorbing and accessible, Bogosian presents this complex and multi-layered history with a master dramatist's flair. Operation Nemesis is an engaged and provocative account of an unforgettable tragedy and a cathartic attempt at finding justice."—Atom Egoyan, Academy Award-nominated writer and director of The Sweet Hereafter and Ararat
"Eric Bogosian, actor, playwright and novelist, can now add historian to his resume with this carefully researched tale of organized revenge on the perpetrators of one of the most heinous state-engineered genocides in modern history—the murderous expulsion of the Armenian people from Atatürk's newly reconstituted Turkey."—Richard Price, author of The Whites
"A dramatic work of history that reads like a thriller.... Though others have covered Operation Nemesis, Bogosian's extensive reliance on the assassin's memoirs, published seven years before his death in 1960, injects his account with the psychological highs and lows Tehlirian endured. Bogosian also uncovers intriguing details about the role of the British in the assassination plot, introducing a new twist to a story that reads like a John le Carré novel."—Michael Bobelian, Los Angeles Times
"An engrossing, heavily-researched account.... The details read like a Hollywood epic, but Bogosian plays it straight, letting the facts tell the story without sensationalizing or romanticizing.... Highly readable."—Publishers Weekly
"Bogosian dives passionately into an underreported piece of history, a surprisingly effective conspiracy to assassinate the planners of Turkey's Armenian genocide."—Boris Kachka, Vulture
"If you think you know all the great thriller stories of the last century, you don't. And this one is true. Operation Nemesis reads like a high-stakes suspense novel, but it tells us something essential about the world we're living in right now."—Peter Blauner, author of Slipping Into Darkness and Slow Motion Riot
"This genocide has finally come to light and Eric's book takes you uncomfortably close to it. It's a must read!"—Whoopi Goldberg
"Operation Nemesis is a spell-binding book. It is written both with urgency and patience. Bogosian's chapter summarizing the "variety of peoples who crossed and recrossed" Anatolia is as good as any of the half-dozen established accounts I've read. His play-by-play story of the Armenian assassins avenging the Armenian genocide (1915-20) is as gripping as a Graham Greene novel. The whole book is a significant contribution to the history of Asia Minor and its effect on our present world."—John Casey, author of National Book Award winner Spartina
"In this resurrection of a lost story, Eric Bogosian vividly tells the story of the assassins who avenged the Ottoman mass killings of Armenians in 1915. Unfolding like a thriller, Bogosian's history brings to life long-forgotten events and the courageous people who set out in their own way to bring a kind of justice and peace to their shared past."—Ronald Grigor Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan, and author of They Can Live in the Desert But Nowhere Else: A History of the Armenian Genocide
"John Le Carré meets James Bond meets Murder on the Orient Express. Few historical exposés read so fluently: I picked up the book one recent afternoon and stayed up almost twenty-four hours to finish it.... Operation Nemesis is that rare book, part historical opus, part detective story."—Christopher Atamian, Huffington Post
"A page-turning new thriller — and [Bogosian's] breathless tale of four ordinary Americans out to avenge the Armenian genocide is all the more compelling because every word of it is true."—Bill Hoffmann, Newsmax
"A clear, concise view of Turkey's history in the 20th century, and it's not pretty. Difficult reading, but an extremely well-written political statement about Turkey—not just then, but as it is now."—Kirkus
"Eric Bogosian's Operation Nemesis takes us into the complex aftermath of the Armenian genocide and reminds us that genocide committed without ethical or legal accountability results in protracted trauma and open wounds that can lead to more violence in efforts to seek justice. A dramatic and important book."—Peter Balakian, author of Black Dog of Fate
A "gripping tale."—Aram Bakshian, Jr., The Washington Times
03/15/2015
This year marks the centennial of nearly one million Armenians being deported and killed by the leadership of the fading Ottoman empire. Playwright and novelist Bogosian (Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll) relates the horrors imposed on the Armenian community as a backdrop to another story: Operation Nemesis, the postwar effort by Armenian militants to assassinate former Ottoman leaders responsible for the tragedy. Driven by revenge and the desire to publicize the atrocities, U.S.-based Armenian radicals organized assassinations throughout Europe. Bogosian profiles young Soghomon Tehlirian, a willing recruit seeking to avenge the death of his family, who succeeded in the 1919 shooting of Talat Enver, one of the overseers of the massacres. The author tells the story of the killing with color and verve; it culminates in a trial in Berlin during which Tehlirian conveyed the guilt of the Ottoman leaders so effectively that he justified his act and was found not guilty. VERDICT While Bogosian imbues the saga of Tehlirian and subsequent murders with suspense and excitement, much of the book is uneven, a carelessly constructed collection of anecdotes and snippets of Turkish and Armenian development. Bogosian is more of a storyteller than a historian; his fascinating account loses some of its power in the episodic presentation of the long and often tragic history of the Armenian people.—Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL
Author and actor (“Law and Order”) Eric Bogosian reads his carefully compiled history of a group of Armenian survivors, members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, who banded together to avenge the more than one million deaths of Armenians at the hands of the Turks in 1915. The group’s goal was the assassination of six Turkish leaders in Berlin, Constantinople, Tiflis, and Rome. In a clear, steady voice, Bogosian recounts the complex relationship between the Armenians and the Ottoman Empire from its beginnings through the early twentieth century. Bogosian switches from Turkic, Arabic, Greek, and European languages without hesitation, moving the story forward to its terrible conclusion. More than a century after the Armenian massacre, Bogosian’s detailed historical account of the assassination of the Turkish leaders teaches listeners about both the genocide and its aftermath. M.B.K. 2016 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
2015-01-22
Actor, playwright and novelist Bogosian (Perforated Heart, 2009, etc.) retells the horrors of the Turkish attempt to eradicate the Armenians: the century's first ethnic cleansing.The Ottoman Empire was primarily Muslim but mostly tolerated Jews and the Christian Armenians. However, they were treated as second-class citizens, required to pay extra taxes, never eligible for public office and banned from intermarriage. In an attempt to modernize, a group of "Young Turks" allied with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in 1908 to overthrow the empire. Though it was a bloodless coup, it soon became apparent that the Young Turks had no need for the Armenians. The country was ruled by the Committee of Union and Progress, a government as ruthless and cruel as the old sultan. The CUP was led by a triumvirate of Djemal Pasha, Talaat Pasha and Enver Pasha; by 1913, any semblance of democracy was lost. Then, in late April 1915, prominent Armenian leaders were rounded up and disappeared. This was the beginning of the genocide about which Hitler said, "[W]ho remembers the Armenians?" The killings, massacres, torture and deportations of Armenians went on through World War I. War-crime trials by the occupying British were ineffectual. Bogosian explores the life of survivor Soghomon Tehlirian, a young man who was fixated on revenge for the deaths of his people. In 1919, the ARF approved a "special mission" called Nemesis to find and execute the guilty parties, and Tehlirian was the perfect man for their mission. He found Pasha in Berlin and killed him, then stood trial, thereby bringing the world's attention to the fate of the Armenians. The author gives a clear, concise view of Turkey's history in the 20th century, and it's not pretty. Difficult reading, but an extremely well-written political statement about Turkey—not just then, but as it is now.
