SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- An 89-year-old Armenian who assassinated two Turkish diplomats a decade ago has won early release from a state prison because of his failing health, it was learned Wednesday.
Bill Elliott, a spokesman for the Board of Prison Terms, confirmed Gourgen Yanikian was freed from the California Medical Facility in Vacaville on Jan. 31.
'He is in a nursing home in very poor health,' Elliott said. 'State regulations allow for the parole 60 days before their official release of prisoners for certain kinds of reasons, such as bad health, a pending job, or college.'
The parole board in October set a March 31 release date for Yanikian, who was convicted of the 1973 murders of two Turkish diplomats in a cottage at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Harry Umann, Yanikian's lawyer, said the Armenian is living in a nursing home in Montebello.
'He is in bad physical condition right now,' Umann said in a telephone interview from his residence in Gardena.
'He lost 60 pounds at Vacaville. He lost weight because they couldn't find his teeth. His glasses got lost and his hearing aid disappeared. He lived there like a vegetable.'
Umann said Yanikian's nursing home bills were being paid by friends.
He said the early release was made under strict security conditions, including a demand for no publicity.
'I was searched going into the prison,' he said. 'In all my years I have never been searched at prison gates.'
Prison records show Yanikian lured the diplomats to a luncheon, on the pretext of returning some priceless Turkish art objects, and then shot them to death. He claimed he sought revenge for the decapitation killing of his older brother by Turkish soldiers in Armenia 70 years earlier.
Since the 1973 attack, more than 30 Turkish diplomats, their families, and employees have been murdered around the world by various groups, including 'The Justice Commandos for Armenian Genocide,' and 'The Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia.' The groups allege they want the Turkish government to acknowlege the massacre of nearly 2 million Armenians in the early 1900s during the breakup of the Ottoman empire.
