Ankara’s chief prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation of Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament representing the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) for allegedly violating the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish penal code that deems “insulting Turkishness” as illegal offense.
“Article 301, which is an article of the Turkish Penal Code making it illegal to ‘denigrate Turkishness, the Turkish Republic, the foundation and the institutions of the State,’ has been interpreted by the ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] as ‘a permanent threat to freedom of expression,’ and considered incompatible with the principle of the state of law,” read a part of Paylan’s statement.
Ankara’s prosecutor’s office opened Paylan’s investigation after he used the word genocide to describe the event of 1915 in an interview, in which he asserted that genocide is continuing today.
The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded that Parliament to lift Paylan’s parliamentary immunity so he can be investigated.
