ISTANBUL—In what has become a regular occurrence in the Turkish Parliament, a brawl began on Monday, this time targeting Garo Paylan, the Turkish-Armenian legislator from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), who says he was targeted for being Armenian.
The fight was instigated by members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Monday as the parliament’s Constitutional Commission was debating whether to strip pro-Kurdish deputies of their immunity.
“It is evident that the members of AKP had targeted me in advance as several of its representatives attacked me in a coordinated manner,” Paylan told bianet.org, adding that the attacks were accompanied with racist epithets.
Paylan said that the AKP members attacked him after he dismissed the announcement by the Justice Minister of Turkey who claimed that the pro-Kurdish HDP members had abused other parliament members during a previous session.
“I just said that no, it is not the case, which was followed by the attacks of 10-15 people. The attack had been planned in advance, and the reason was that I am an ethnic Armenian. I have posted that footage in social media. Those interested can watch it and judge for themselves,” Paylan said adding that the attackers shouted “Garo is here. Garo is here.”
Paylan, who said he was beaten around 100 times, said he found it futile to appeal his case, since the parliament judiciary committee is controlled by AKP members, who would not objectively review his claims.
“What they can’t digest is this: A person of Armenian heritage is calling them out on their lies and is a stand up person,” said Paylan. “They want to see Armenians obeying them. I as an Armenia putting up a fight for rights and I have been targeted and subjected to lynching.”
The parliament’s Constitutional Commission did adopt a measure to strip the pro-Kurdish members of their immunity. According to the HDP, the immunity bill was drafted and approved specifically to target them and to suppress opposition to the ruling regime.
The bill will be debated in the parliament’s General Assembly and then voted on in order to be put into practice. Reuters quoted senior AKP member Bulent Turan as saying that the ruling AKP wishes for the parliamentary debate to begin on May 16, and for the vote to take place by May 18.
Karo jan , dear brother , your such a hero for standing tall and demanding our Armenian / minority / human rights on our ( Western Armenian ) lands !!!
Naturally we all are concern about your safety .,
And we don’t want another Hrand Dink situation … We need you as leader amongst us , maybe not in the Turkish parliament but nevertheless a natural leader that you are .
Karo jan , we all know it’s going to take few more thousand years until Turkish politicians see the light of humanism. A spring doesn’t come with one flower … Please be safe …
I just feel it’s not worth it and at this point its a loosing battle to expect to change anything meaningful in turkey … Let them change on their own . We want you next to us brother .
I agree
Local LA nightly news reported that this fight in Turkish parliament was because one political party proposed a bill ending immunity for parliament members. It was either Ktla 5 or kabc 7.
AKP Party is the political wing of Islamists in Turkey. While the world is trying to rid itself from religious extremists, in Turkey they represent a so called Secular State which for the past 90 years has served as a smoke screen for the Turkish Nationalists who have always been the core of Attaturk’s Turkish Republic. And, the USA is supporting this NATO ally!
This is Terrorist state of Turkey’s way of Democracy.
If you watch a previous video in which Garo Paylan was reading out in the parliament the names of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders killed in the 1915 Armenian Genocide you can hear some of the Turkish parliament members shouting “ASALA” while this was going on. I knew right there and then that Garo Paylan was going to be a target of some Turkish plot. I just could not tell when and how.
Armenians must never trust the Turks. Those who do are fools. I strongly believe that the Turks either want the Armenians far away from them, i.e. through mass murder and genocide such as the one committed a 101 years ago, or they want them very close to them so they can have them under their watchful eyes and to manipulate and spy on them and to show them in bad light in order to attack and do them harm with impunity. After all, the leader of the AKP gang who plotted the premeditated attack on Garo Paylan, is none other than the Turkish terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an who recently not only helped ignite the Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes on the front line but he is also the same disgusting and filthy genocide denier who, instead of calling for a halt to hostilities, added fuel to the fire by making anti-Armenian remarks and wishing his donkey-brain coward “brother” Aliyev, who was MIA in the last war hiding in Moscow, victory and that the liberated territories will one day be returned to their “true owners’ as he put it not realizing that these territories are already in the hands of their true owners.