The Dashnak bullet fired from the podium of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey

Talat Pasha assumed significant responsibilities during the organization, party-building, and rise to power of the Committee of Union and Progress, of which he was a founder. The Pasha's efforts to keep the Ottoman Empire out of the polarization between imperialist states would not yield results. During the difficult years of World War I, into which the Ottoman Empire was reluctantly dragged, he served in the Committee of Union and Progress governments as the Minister of the Interior (Dahiliye Nazırı) and Grand Vizier (Sadrazam).

The job of Talat Pasha, the Minister of the Interior of a government trying to prevent the activities of Armenian Dashnak gangs—which were striking the supply lines of the Ottoman Army struggling against Russian attacks in the East, cutting off its connection with the rear of the front, and organizing ethnic cleansing campaigns against the civilian population—was truly difficult.

The Ministry of the Interior, in order to cut off the support of the local Armenians for the Dashnak gangs and to secure the rear of the front, would decide with a circular issued on April 24, 1915, to close the Armenian Revolutionary Committee Centers, arrest their leaders, and seize their documents. May 27, 1915, is the start date of the implementation of the relocation and resettlement of Armenians in the uprising zone to regions far from the front of the Ottoman Empire.

We cannot ignore the tragic events that occurred during the implementation of the relocation and resettlement decision during the war process. It was not possible to prevent the looting raids carried out by local gangs and tribes on the relocation convoys with insufficient law enforcement, and serious losses were experienced. However, attributing these tragic events to a deliberate, planned, and systematic state policy is a distortion of historical facts.

Characterizing the relocation and resettlement implementation, which was carried out after the closure of the Armenian Revolutionary Committees and some arrests on April 24, 1915, as genocide is not only contrary to historical reality but also entirely contrary to international law.

Let us come to the real, unspoken crime of the Committee of Union and Progress and Talat Pasha. It is their desire to bring forth the Turkish bourgeoisie against the non-Muslim comprador bourgeoisie that emerged during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, which was an extension of Western imperialism and acted as its collaborator. In other words, it is their desire to Turkify the economy and capital. It is the fact that they began to lay the first stones of the path leading to the nation-state.

The desire for capital to be Turkified in the Turkish land, and the adoption and implementation of decisions in this regard, is a tendency that can never be accepted by imperialism. The fact that this unforgivable crime, which is the reason the Unionists were crucified, is never mentioned, and instead the accusation of genocide is put in the showcase, is because it is easier to find customers and easier to provide support from the stands.

There are lessons to be learned for today from the life story of Talat Pasha, who was martyred by being shot from behind by the Dashnak assassin Soghomon Tehlirian in Berlin on March 15, 1921. The fact that Talat Pasha was declared a national martyr by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in 1926, a martyr's pension was granted to his family, and he was brought to Turkey from Germany in 1943 and buried at the Şişli Hürriyeti Ebediye Hill with a state ceremony should be reflected upon. Do you think the deputies of the TBMM of that period ever imagined that Talat Pasha, whom they declared a national martyr, would one day be accused of genocide from the podium of the Veteran Assembly?

The words spoken by George Arslan, whom the DEM Party made a Mardin Deputy from the Syriac quota, against the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality's commissioning of a statue of Talat Pasha, should be read as a Dashnak bullet fired at the Turkish nation in the person of Talat Pasha from the podium of the Veteran Assembly:

"In 1915, when the Ottoman population was 13 million, approximately three million of this population consisted of Christian peoples, namely Armenians, Greeks, and Syriacs. Today is 2025, exactly 110 years have passed. While Turkey's population is 86 million, why is the population of Christian peoples expressed in the tens of thousands when it should have reached millions under normal conditions? What happened to these people?

Of course, no answer came to this question I asked. While we were expecting a sincere confrontation regarding the genocide committed against Christian peoples in 1915, on the contrary, the names of the perpetrators are being given to public spaces, streets, parks, and schools, and their monuments are being erected. A monument was built for Talat Pasha in the Altındağ district by Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş.

We do not accept the erection of a monument for someone who gave the death order for tens of thousands of Armenians who were killed, sent into exile, and whose property was seized in 1915, when a monument should have been erected for them. Some people may be heroes for one nation, but for other nations, these people are not heroes but murderers."

After receiving his deputy mandate, George Arslan, who took an oath of loyalty to the Republic of Turkey and the indivisible integrity of the country from the podium of the TBMM, is accusing the Turkish Nation of committing genocide not only against Armenians but also against other Christians such as Syriacs and Greeks!

While an attempt is made to deactivate national sensitivity with the anesthesia of peace and brotherhood, ethnic stakeholders are created for the Turkish title deed, and a Dashnak bullet is fired at the Turkish Nation through Talat Pasha from the podium of the Veteran Assembly, the indifference of the deputies in the TBMM, with exceptions, is a cautionary tale!