ANKARA, Turkey (A.W.)—During a session of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly today, Garo Paylan, Member of Turkey’s Parliament for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), suggested forming a commission to investigate the killings of Armenian politicians in 1915.
In his address to Parliament, Paylan read the names and displayed the photographs of several Armenian politicians killed, arrested, or exiled in the Armenian Genocide, including Krikor Zohrab (Istanbul), Bedros Haladjian (Istanbul), Nazaret Daghavarian (Sivas), Garabed Pashaian (Sivas), Ohannes Seringiulian (Erzurum), Onnik Tersekian (Van), Hampartsum Boyadjian (Kozan), Vahan Papazian (Van), Hagop Babikian (Tekirdağ), Karekin Pastermadjian (Erzurum), Kegham Der Garabedian (Mush), Hagop Boyadjian (Tekirdağ), and Artin Boshgezenian (Aleppo). Paylan also detailed the fate of each Armenian politician during the Armenian Genocide.
During his address, which he began with the Armenian greeting “Parev tsez,” Paylan condemned the murder of the politicians and said that the Turkish state should come to terms with its history. Paylan also condemned the fact that several places in Turkey are named after the organizers and perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. “Can you imagine going to Germany and walking on avenues named after Hitler?” Paylan asked.
He then ended his address with the Armenian phrase “Asdvadz irents hokin lusavoreh” (“May God illuminate their souls”).
Paylan was first elected to Turkey’s Grand National Assembly on June 7, 2015, and re-elected in the November 2015 snap elections.
