Garo Paylan ( hy, Կարօ Փայլան, born 1972) is a Turkish politician of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

descent. He is a Member of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) representing

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

. He became one of the first Armenian members of Turkey's parliament in decades alongside

Markar Esayan Markar Esayan (4 February 1969 – 16 October 2020) was an Armenian author, journalist, and politician of Turkey.Justice and Development Party website: He was a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Justice and Development Party ...

( AKP) and

Selina Özuzun Doğan Selina Özuzun Doğan (born Selina Özuzun in 1977), aka Selina Doğan, is a Turkish politician of Armenian ethnicity who served as a member of the Turkish Parliament between 2015 and 2018. She became one of the first Armenian members of Turkey� ...

( CHP).

Life

Garo Paylan was born in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey in 1972 to an

family originally from

Malatya Malatya ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city ha ...

. He graduated from

Istanbul University , image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg , image_size = 200px , latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis , motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü , mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future , established = 1453 1846 1933 ...

's School of Business. He then became a director of various Armenian schools in Istanbul. Thereafter, he became a director for a project that promoted multilingual education.

Political career

Garo Paylan first joined the

Peace and Democracy Party The Peace and Democracy Party ( tr, Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, ku, Partiya Aştî û Demokrasiyê, BDP) was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. Development BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 20 ...

(BDP) in 2011 and was one of its campaign supports. He then represented the interests of Armenians within the party and soon joined other activists starting the People's Democratic Congress, becoming a member of its Central committee.

Peoples' Democratic Party

Garo Paylan became one of the founding members of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and was part of its central committee.

Member of Parliament

On June 7, 2015, he was elected into the Grand National Assembly as a representative of Istanbul's 3rd electoral district. He became among the first Armenian members of the Assembly in decades alongside

( CHP) and

( AKP). He was re-elected in the snap elections of November 2015. Garo paylan conference

He was re-elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in the Parliamentary Elections on 24 June 2018. He is currently a member of the Turkish parliament's Planning and Budget Committee. The State Prosecutor for the

Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...

in Turkey

Bekir Şahin Bekir Şahin (born 1 March 1960, Mecitözü, Turkey) is a jurist, former judge and the current State Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation in Turkey. Education He was educated at the Imam Hatip school and studied law at the Dokuz Eylül Universi ...

filed a lawsuit before the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

on the 17 March 2021, demanding for Paylan and 686 other HDP politicians a five-year ban for a political participation. The lawsuit was filed jointly with a request for the HDP to be shut down due to the parties alleged organizational links with the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK).

Brawl in parliament

On 2 May 2016, another fight occurred during a meeting for constitutional reform in which the Minister of Justice,

Bekir Bozdağ Bekir Bozdağ (born 1 April 1965) is a Turkish lawyer and politician of Kurdish origin and current Minister of Justice.http://www.rudaw.net/turkish/middleeast/turkey/060520162 On 6 July 2011 he was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister in the ...

, blamed Garo Paylan for starting the fight the previous week. Paylan responded by saying Bozdağ's remarks were slanderous. Following the incident, Paylan said that many racist remarks were made about his Armenian identity and that the attack against him was planned. He concluded that he was attacked because of his ethnic Armenian identity. The

Human Rights Association The Human Rights Association ( tr, İnsan Hakları Derneği, İHD) is an NGO for advancing Human rights in Turkey, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Ankara. Establishment The İHD's origins can be traced to the victims of the purges in the ...

of Turkey released a statement condemning the violence against Paylan. The condemnation, released by its Committee Against Racism and Discrimination, stated that the attacks against him were due to his Armenian origin. The statement also condemned various racial slurs that were said to him such as "the Armenian bastard".

Views

Armenian Genocide

Upon getting elected Paylan vowed to fight against

Armenian genocide denial Armenian genocide denial is the claim that the Ottoman Empire and its ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), did not commit genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War I—a crime documented in a large body of ...

and demands that the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

be acknowledged in Turkey. In April 2016, during a speech in parliament he made concerning the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Paylan counted the names of

Ottoman Armenian Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (or Ottoman Armenians) mostly belonged to either the Armenian Apostolic Church or the Armenian Catholic Church. They were part of the Armenian millet until the Tanzimat reforms in the nineteenth century equa ...

politicians who were deported and killed during the Armenian Genocide. In April 2021, he demanded the same acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide by Turkey in a speech in the Turkish parliament. Paylan also opposes the calling streets of squares in memory of

Talaat Pasha Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 t ...

, equating it to calling streets in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in memory of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Armenia and Artsakh

During the war in Nagorno Karabakh in 2020, he criticized the Turkish Government of the

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

(AKP) for being in favor of war while being a member of the

Minsk Group The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azer ...

which is tasked with finding a diplomatic solution for the conflict.

Police violence

He supports the movement of the

Saturday Mothers The Saturday Mothers ( tr, Cumartesi Anneleri) is a group which gathers every Saturday at noon for half an hour at Galatasaray, Istanbul, Turkey, initially to ask for clarification about their missing relatives.Gülsüm Baydar and Berfin İvegen. ...

( tr, Cumartesi Anneleri), who demand answers to the whereabouts of their "disappeared" relatives in Turkey.

LGBTQ+ rights

On 1 November 2022, during

Pink Armenia Pink Armenia ( hy, Փինք Հայաստան, translit=P’ink’ Hayastan) is the first LGBTQIA+ rights non-governmental organization in Armenia. Pink Armenia was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Yerevan. Its mission is to serve and suppor ...

's "2022 Rainbow Forum" in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

, Paylan made an impromptu visit after meeting Armenia's prime minister

Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan ( hy, Նիկոլ Վովայի Փաշինյան, ; born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician serving as the prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in 1 ...

earlier that day. Paylan stated, "If Armenia wants to be a democratic country, it should respect LGBTIQ rights".

Awards

* Grand Vermeil Medal *

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; hy, Երևանի Պետական Համալսարան, ԵՊՀ, ''Yerevani Petakan Hamalsaran''), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919 ...

’s gold medal *

Nobel Prize for Peace The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology ...

nominations (2018, 2020).Garo Paylan nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, by Siranush Ghazanchyan, Public Radio of Armenia, January 24, 2020
/ref>

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paylan, Garo 1972 births Istanbul University alumni Schoolteachers from Istanbul Armenian educators Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Living people Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey) politicians Armenian politicians Turkish people of Armenian descent Turkish Oriental Orthodox Christians Armenian Apostolic Christians Deputies of Istanbul Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Ethnic Armenian politicians Turkish human rights activists