The Talat-Tehlirian Complex: Contentious Narratives of Martyrdom and Revenge in Post-Conflict Societies

Yenen, Alp · 2022

Examines the assassination of Talat Pasha by Soghomon Tehlirian in Berlin on 15 March 1921, and Tehlirian's trial and acquittal that June, as the origin of conflicting legacies of the Armenian Genocide. Yenen argues that although small in terms of violence and legal consequence, these events and their reimagination in contentious narratives have become a dominant prism for sense-making in Turkish-Armenian relations. In rival national imaginations, Talat and Tehlirian each compete for the same categories of hero and victim while being demonized as villains by the other side. The article follows the assassination, the funeral, the trial, the long silence, and the later commemorative cycles.

Citation checked against the publisher's record on 2026-07-13.