Syriac MP in Turkey George Aryo: No monuments for Talaat Pasha but for his Armenian, Syriac, and Greek victims

ANKARA — In a speech yesterday before Turkish Parliament, Syriac MP for the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) George Aryo called for the erection of a memorial for Christians who were brutally murdered and exiled and whose property was usurped by the Ottoman Empire and its Kurdish allies in what Syriacs call the “Sayfo” Genocide, or ‘Sword’. Aryo, whose Turkish surname is Aslan, made his following global Sayfo commemorations on 15 June.

Aryo began his speech with the question ‘where have Turkey’s Christians gone?’:

“In 1915, the Ottoman Empire had a population of 15 million, 3 million of which were Christian Armenians, Rum [Greeks], and Syriacs … Today, 110 years have passed. The population of Turkey is now 86 million of which only few tens of thousands are Christians. Why? Under normal circumstances the Christian population would have been in the millions. What happened to these people.” 

Aryo stated that he had raised this question before in the Turkish house of representatives but never received an answer. He continued:

“On the contrary! Instead of erecting a memorial for the martyrs of the Sayfo Genocide, public places, parks, streets, and schools are named after the perpetrators. Monuments are erected in their honor.”  

Aryo specifically referred to Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş (Republican People’s Party, CHP) who only recently approved a monument for former Young Turk minister and Prime Minister Talaat Pasha (1874–1921). Talaat Pasha was one of the architects of the Sayfo Genocide and was convicted afterwards for his key role in enacting the genocide. Pasha was killed in 1921 in exile in Berlin by the Armenian Soghomon Tehlirian.

Instead of Talaat Pasha, Aryo claimed, a monument should be erected for the tens of thousands of Armenians living in Ankara in 1915. It is them who were killed, exiled, and whose properties were seized. “We do not accept the erection of a monument for the man who ordered their deaths,” Aryo exclaimed. “No parks or schools should be named after him. This is unacceptable.”

Aryo concluded by saying that Talaat Pasha’s mentality still rules Turkish politics and the state today. “In this way, there can be no confrontation with the Sayfo and no social peace,” he concluded. Coming to terms with the past strengthens and liberates a country.