Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Turkey has required the Parliament to abolish pro-Kurdish “Peoples’ Democratic Party” (HDP) Armenian MP Garo Paylan’s legislative immunity. Paylan can be subject to punishment under Article 299 (on offending the President) and Article 301 (on publicly offending Turkish statehood, Turkish people and Turkish Government) of the Criminal Code of Turkey.
The former rector of Giresun University, Aygyun Attar submitted an application against Paylan on May 16, 2017. The application was substantiated by Garo Paylan’s speech delivered in Majlis on January 14, 2017, and by expressions, he made during his interview to Canada’s Armenian “Horizon Weekly” via live broadcast on May 1, 2017.
In particular, the Armenian MP had said at Turkish Majlis, during the mentioned speech: “There was a time we constituted 40 percent. Today we are one in a thousand. Hence, something has happened to us and I call it Genocide. The Armenian nation knows very well what they have been through. I know very well what happened to my father and grandfather back then. Thus, you give it a name, please. Inasmuch as we are nothing. We have decreased in number so much that we have become one in a thousand.”
And during the interview to “Horizon Weekly,” Paylan had mentioned: “Genocide has taken place in Turkey and that Genocide goes on today as well.”
The Investigation Bureau of Parliamentary Crimes of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office has accepted Attar’s application and given it a start. Under Article 301, the permission of the Ministry of Justice of Turkey is needed for starting an investigation. It has become clear that the Ministry of Justice has satisfied the request to start an investigation against Paylan on December 7, 2017.
The Prosecutor’s Office has recorded that Paylan’s mentioned speeches are sufficient evidence to the accusation that he has publicly offended the Turkish people, Turkish statehood and the President of the Republic.
Source: ermenihaber.am