Friday, October 15, 1999
CLEVELAND (AP) - A prominent Armenian-American activist was charged with plotting attacks against Turkish targets in the United States from for two decades, including a bombing that injured three in 1980.

Mourad Topalian, who has served as chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, was arrested Thursday on a five-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, concealing and storing stolen explosives, improper storage of explosives, possession of machine guns and possession of firearms with defaced serial numbers. Topalian could get 31 years in prison if convicted.

The indictment charged Topalian with directing a group that stole weapons and explosives used in a car bombing outside the Turkish mission to the United Nations in New York City in October 1980. Three people were hurt.

U.S. Attorney Emily Sweeney said the alleged plot was intended to draw attention to alleged atrocities that left up to 1 million Armenians dead in 1915 when Armenia was ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies committing genocide, saying any deaths were the result of a civil war.

Topalian, who works as an administrator at a local junior college, appeared in U.S. District Court on Thursday and declined to comment after he was freed on $100,000 bond. There is no phone listing under his name on the address provided by the government and he could not be reached today.

The investigation began with the 1996 discovery of weapons and explosives in a suburban Bedford storage garage that was opened after the rent went unpaid for six months.

According to the indictment, Topalian was questioned in 1988 about the New York bombing and denied any involvement.

Topalian also was accused of sending people to Massachusetts and Beirut, Lebanon, for weapons and bomb training. The indictment said Topalian demonstrated how to use submachine guns at a camp in Franklin, Mass., in 1976 and 1977.

The indictment also mentions two 1981 California bombings in which no one was hurt but it did not specify whether Topalian was involved. They were at the Orange County Convention Center in Anaheim and the Turkish consulate in Beverly Hills.