Berlin police have authorized a gathering on March 15 commemorating the assassination of Talaat Pasha, an Ottoman leader and one of the main perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, prompting protests from Armenian community groups in Germany.
According to a notice cited by the Armenian weekly Azg, the event is scheduled for 11:00–11:30 a.m. at Hardenbergstraße 16 and is described as marking “the assassination of Talaat Pasha, architect of modern Turkey and a revolutionary.” The notice does not identify the organizers.
A separate rally will take place the same day at 11:00 a.m. at Hardenbergstraße 22, organized by the Union of Activists Against Racism, Nationalism and Discrimination (AKEBI). The group said it will address the role of Talaat Pasha as one of the principal perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide within the intertwined history of the German and Ottoman empires.
On March 15, 1921, Armenian Genocide survivor Soghomon Tehlirian shot and killed Talaat Pasha on Hardenbergstraße in Berlin. Tehlirian was later acquitted by a German court in a trial that drew international attention.
Members of the Armenian community in Germany have expressed outrage over the planned commemoration. Several organizations, including the Union of Armenian Lawyers in Germany and the “Miatsin” Union of Armenian Students in Germany, have called on authorities to ban the event.
“Honoring criminals must not be tolerated,” Bishop Serovbé Isakhanyan, Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Germany, wrote in a statement. He said portraying Talaat Pasha as a revolutionary and architect of modern Turkey ignores his responsibility for the Armenian Genocide and insults the memory of its victims.
Germany’s Bundestag formally recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2016, making the issue particularly sensitive in the country.
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