Soghomon Tehlirian with his family, Erznka (Erzincan), 1908

This photograph shows Soghomon Tehlirian as a child with his father, brothers and sisters. It was taken in 1908 in Erznka (Erzincan), in the Ottoman Empire. Soghomon stands on the left holding a dagger, which later acquired deep historical significance.

Ten people pose in front of a wall: a seated man with a moustache holding two infants on his lap, and seven more children. Several of the girls wear dresses with lace collars and necklaces.

After the Armenian Genocide, the large Tehlirian family was almost entirely wiped out. On 15 March 1921, in Berlin, Soghomon Tehlirian shot, with the same hand, Talaat Pasha, the chief organiser of the genocide, carrying out an act of historical justice.