ISTANBUL, MAY 16, ARTSAKHPRESS. The Armenian community of Turkey is disappointed with the results of the May 14 elections, according to outgoing Member of Parliament of Turkey Garo Paylan.
Paylan, an ethnic Armenian politician from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), represented Diyarbakır in the outgoing parliament. He was not running for parliament again in the May 14 elections because his party’s charter prohibits a politician from doing so for more than two consecutive times.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having formed an alliance with what Paylan described as “nationalists and radicals” succeeded in garnering enough votes to secure a parliamentary majority. According to Paylan, this means that Turkey will become even more nationalistic, while a more nationalistic Turkey will normalize relations with Armenia with greater difficulties.
“We must not spare any effort in convincing Turkey to establish peace with Armenia,” Paylan told ARMENPRESS in Istanbul.
The politician said it’s important for democracy to develop in Turkey because “only a democratic country can resolve its issues with neighbors.”
Paylan said the results of the elections didn’t meet the expectations of the Armenian community in Istanbul.
“Armenians in Turkey are already in fear. Before 2015, we used to talk about our issues, but after that the Armenians became more silent. We were hoping that something would change as a result of these elections, but that didn’t happen. Unfortunately, Armenians will become more voiceless in this period,” Paylan said.
Presidential rivals Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will have a runoff election after both failed to win 50%.
However, Erdogan’s alliance garnered 49,46% of the votes in the parliamentary elections, which means that they will have 322 seats in parliament. His main rival’s bloc won 35,02% of votes and will have 213 seats.
Araks Kasyan
