YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. Garo Paylan, Turkey’s ethnic Armenian Member of Parliament, has made his first comment since being officially nominated by his party for another term in parliament.

Paylan shared a trilingual – Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish – post on Facebook, saying: “Hello Tigranakert. I am proud on being nominated as a candidate from Diyarbakir”.

Ethnic Armenian opposition MP of Turkey Garo Paylan is running for another term in the country’s parliament in the upcoming June 24 elections.

Paylan is nominated by the HDP party, but this time the ethnic Armenian lawmaker is running from Diyarbakir, unlike the previous time when he ran from Istanbul.

Garo Paylan is known for his struggle for achieving the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey itself.  He even introduced a motion in the parliament to acknowledge the 1915 killings as genocide, but understandably it was denied as the country’s leadership is vehemently denying the historical fact.  Paylan is also known for his active engagement in the affairs of the local Armenian community of Istanbul, most notably in the Armenian Patriarchate matters.

He was even sanctioned for speaking about the Armenian Genocide from the parliament floor.

In addition, he is currently under investigation under the infamous Article 301 – an article of the criminal code seeking imprisonment for “insulting Turkey”.

Paylan might be stripped of immunity under the charges.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan