RADIKAL: TALAAT PASHA GAVE ZOHRAP KISS OF DEATH

Panorama

http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2011/08/10/grigor-zohrap/

Aug 20 2011

Armenia
Columnist of the Radikal Turkish daily, Oral Calislar wrote about

prominent Armenian writer Grigor Zohrap and his tragic death in his

article titled “Talaat Pasha’s Kiss of Death.”
Zohrap was a Member of the Ottoman Parliament, an outstanding

personality, a skilled writer and a talented lawyer, the columnist

writes quoting Zohrap as saying: “I am a socialist, a believer

socialist. A socialist is neither a partisan nor a terrorist…”
Further Calislar tells about how Armenian intellectuals were arrested

and killed after being exiled at night on April 24, 1915 in Istanbul.
He writes about how Zohrap appealed to many of top officials asking

for release of his innocent compatriots. Zohrap was close with many

of these officials, including Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, Chairman

of the Parliament Said Halim Pasha, but all his efforts proved vain.
In his article, Oral Calislar gives quotations from Nesim Ovadya

Ä°zrail’s book titled “1915. A Death Trip. Grigor Zohrap.” The book

described the night when Zohrap was arrested: “The night of June 2,

1915. Zohrap was sitting in the club Cercle d’Orient with Talaat

Pasha and Halil Bey. It was already midnight when Zohrap rose to his

feet to leave the club. Talaat Pasha also got up, came up to him and

kissed him on the cheek…”
Referring to this passage, the author says it proved to be a kiss of

death, with Talaat Pasha having signed an arrest warrant for Grigor

Zohrap and another Armenian MP Vardges Sarengyulian two days before

that night. On that night, Zohrap was arrested in his home and together

with Sarengyulian was forced to leave never to return again.
The columnist refers to this book and tells how Zohrap was tortured

and killed brutally. His watch and ring were seized and sold in Urfa

market. The doctor of Urfa municipality made a report claiming that

allegedly Zohrap had died of heart failure.
The author condemns these horrible crimes and stresses that there

are 22 volumes of Zohrap’s works published and translated into 26

languages while there is insufficient awareness of Zohrap in Turkey.
“This 520-page valuable study is very important for us to confront

the bitterness of our own history,” the columnist concluded.