Assyrian MP condemns monument over genocide architect
Turkish parliament MP George Arjo has criticized the inauguration of a monument to Talat Pasha, one of the key figures behind the Assyrian genocide.
The unveiling of a monument honouring Talat Pasha in Turkey, regarded as the chief architect of the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek genocides, drew sharp condemnation from Assyrian MP George Arjo (Aslan) of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party.
On 18 June, Aslan addressed Turkey’s Grand National Assembly, criticising the inauguration of a monument in Ankara’s Altındağ district by Mayor Mansur Yavaş on Talat Paşa Boulevard. Talat, who served as Interior Minister during World War I and later as Grand Vizier, is widely seen as a key architect of the campaign of genocide that saw millions of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians killed and uprooted.
“As we wait for a sincere reckoning with the genocide against Christian peoples in 1915, we see perpetrators honoured with street names, parks, schools–and now monuments,” Aslan said. Referring to the Ankara monument, he argued it should honour victims, not “the man who signed their death warrants.” He recalled Talat’s vow in 1912 to destroy the Armenians, and noted his role in the massacre of Assyrians in Omid (Diyarbakır), where Governor Reşit oversaw executions in the courtyard of the Meryem Ana Church.
George Aryo (Aslan) condemning the Talat Pasha monument in the Turkish parliament.
“Now in 2025, we still see the same mentality,” Aslan concluded. “Confronting the past means remembering its pain and preventing its repetition. Monuments must be built for the victims of the 1915 genocide, not for those who carried it out.”
George Aslan, an Assyrian born in the Turabdin region who lived in the Netherlands for several decades before returning to Turkey, has become a controversial figure in the Turkish parliament for raising Assyrian and other minority issues considered sensitive in Turkish society, including delivering a greeting in Assyrian from the parliamentary podium.
