ISTANBUL — On April 24, Garo Paylan, a parliamentarian of Armenian origin, had the courage to remind his fellow MPs of the dozen Armenian members of the Ottoman parliament whose tragic fate was decided by a similar policy.
Paylan, a member of the opposition HDP party, read the names of Krikor Zohrab, Ohannes Vartkes Serengulyan, Garabed Pasayan, Nazaret Dagavaryan, Onnik Tertsakyan (Arsak Vramyan), Isdepan Cirinciyan and Hampartsum Boyaciyan.
According to a translation in Agos newspaper, he started his address at the parliament with “Barev Dzez,” and went on to say that the Turkish republic should come to terms with its past.
He said, “After the beginning of the second constitutional period in 1908, many Amrenians servedin the Chamber of Deputies.”
He then named each as well as where they represented and when they were killed.
“Krikor Zohrab was arrested in Istanbul on May 21, 1915 and put on a train along with Erzurum Deputy Ohannes Vartkes Serenguylyan for standing trail in court in Diyarbakir. First they were sent to Konya, then to Adana and finally to Aleppo. Ultimately exiled to Urfa, Zohrab and Serengulyan were killed in the Karakopru province of Urfa by partisans,” he noted.
