Turkish-Armenian Parliament Member Vows To Fight Genocide Denial

Turkey ”“ Garo Paylan, left, casts his ballot at a polling station in Istanbul on Sunday. He became one of three Turkish-Armenians elected to parliament
ISTANBUL (RFE/RL)””One of the three Armenians elected to Turkey’s new parliament has reportedly pledged to challenge Ankara’s long-standing denial of the Armenian Genocide.
In an interview with the Ermenihaber.am news website published on Wednesday, Garo Paylan also suggested Turkish recognition of the genocide is critical for the normalization of Turkey’s relations with Armenia.
Paylan, 42, was won a parliament seat on the ticket of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) widely credited with the ruling AK Party’s worse-than-expected showing in Sunday’s election. The HDP is the only major Turkish party to have described the World War One-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide.
Paylan, who has previously run an Armenian school in Istanbul, said he will fight against “denialist policies”