Today, a protest action for the support of Turkish MP of Armenian origin Garo Paylan was held in Yerevan.
In his speech at the Turkish Parliament on 24 April 2016, Garo Paylan paid tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkey in 2015.
According to the initiators of the protest action, after the speech, during the parliamentary debates, he was attacked initially. Curses and other racist expressions were addressed to him. According to the activists, in the Turkish social media there were even calls to kill Karo Paylan like Hrant Dink.
They believe that Karo Paylan’s life is in danger. “We are with Garo, and we shall be consistent to support Garo avoid any risk to his life”, – the participants said during the protest.
They marched to the UN Office from the Republic Square handing over a letter: “The UN should be reminded of its mission and make its member states adopt and implement the obligations they undertook.” the activists said.
Advocate Vardanush Kavalyan had joined the protest action as well. She told that Articles 1-7 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination prohibit discrimination and provide the obligations of states . In addition, Articles 9-11 provide the right to apply to the UN structures. Notably, violence has been applied in Turkey against the MP of Armenian origin Garo Paylan: therefore we demand to form a committee without participation of representatives from Armenia and from turkey and to examine the case,”
The security met the activists at the UN Office and took the letter. Soon the activists understood that the letter was handed to the representatives of the security, and this caused their discontent on the fact of the negative approach by the UN. While the protestors believed that a more competent UN Official should have met them and taken the letter.
At the UN office, the activists were welcomed by the security guard and took the letter. After a while, recognizing that their letter took the security guard , the activist expressed their discontent with the country they meet such a negative attitude by the United Sates, while according to the protests, the competent official should have met them.
The activists expressed their discontent through a phone call and left.
