On September 24, 1981, the ASALA organization carried out Operation VAN, seizing the Turkish consulate in Paris.
Having burst into the consulate, commander Vazgen Sislyan, Hakob Julfayan, Gevorg Gyuzelyan and Aram Basmajyan seriously wounded consul Kay Inal and security service representative Jemal Ozen. The fighters captured 56 hostages, many of whom provided assistance and assistance to the Armenian fighters, for which the Turkish authorities subsequently called them crypto-Armenians. Members of the Armenian organization allowed the wounded Inal and Ozen to be sent to the hospital, where Ozen died from his wounds.
The purpose of seizing the consulate was to demand that ASALA members release “Armenian and several Turkish and Kurdish political prisoners in Turkey,” but this condition was rejected. Although the main Armenian political prisoner, priest Manvel Erkatyan, together with priest Hrant Guzelyan, was released at the request of the European powers, the operation is generally considered a failure.
ASALA members decided to surrender to the French authorities, asking to recognize their status as political prisoners.
