YEREVAN, MAY 22, ARMENPRESS. Ethnic Armenian Member of Parliament of Turkey Markar Esayan is running for parliament again in the upcoming elections on June 24. Esayan is once again nominated by the Justice and Development (AK) party – the country’s ruling party chaired by incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Esayan is running from the second electoral district of Istanbul, just like in the previous election in 2015, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency reported.

Unlike the other ethnic Armenian lawmakers of Turkey, Esayan is not engaged in any pro-Armenian initiatives whatsoever. On the contrary, he even voted in favor of an infamous anti-Armenian report by a British parliamentarian in PACE regarding Karabakh. The report however failed to pass anyhow.

Currently there are three ethnic Armenian lawmakers in the Turkish parliament – the outspoken and fearless Garo Paylan (HDP), who continues to fight for justice and human rights, Selina Dogan (CHP) and the pro-Erdogan Markar Esayan.

Dogan is not running for parliament in the upcoming elections and the reason is still unclear.

Paylan on the other hand has been nominated again but this time from Diyarbakir, not Istanbul.

National elections are slated for June 24 in Turkey. The country will shift to a full presidential system from its current parliamentary system. The parliament’s seats will be increased from 550 to 600.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan