YEREVAN, JUNE 19, ARMENPRESS. Turkish-Armenian Member of Parliament Garo Paylan (HDP), who is running for another term in the Turkey’s parliament representing Diyarbakir in the upcoming elections, has commented about the investigation targeting him under the infamous Article 301.
Speaking to the Bianet Turkish media outlet, Paylan claimed that it is the very same article which casued the murder of the prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
Dink, the editor-in-chief of Istanbul’s Agos, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper, was gunned down outside his office in 2007.
“I am under investigation for “insulting Turkishness” for speaking about the Armenian Genocide. Actually, it is the denial of the genocide which is an insult. Call it whatever you want, denying the great tragedy of the Armenians is an insult to Turkishness”, he said.
“Thousands of our churches, schools, cultural legacy, we’ve lost everything. We are suggesting – you yourself name the events. We are saying, name the events based on a fair remembrance. However, we always get the same answer: You cannot speak about this. And in such conditions, it turns out you have insulted Turkishness. Turks are perceived in the world as genocide deniers. Whereas I, on the contrary, I am fighting to eliminate this injustice against Turks,” he said.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
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