Turkish-Armenians to become more 'voiceless', warns outgoing MP Paylan as Erdogan's 'nationalistic' bloc secures majority

The Armenian community of Turkey is disappointed with the results of the May 14 elections, according to outgoing Member of Parliament of Turkey Garo Paylan.

Paylan, an ethnic Armenian politician from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), represented Diyarbakır in the outgoing parliament. He was not running for parliament again in the May 14 elections because his party’s charter prohibits a politician from doing so for more than two consecutive times.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having formed an alliance with what Paylan described as “nationalists and radicals” succeeded in garnering enough votes to secure a parliamentary majority. According to Paylan, this means that Turkey will become even more nationalistic, while a more nationalistic Turkey will normalize relations with Armenia with greater difficulties.

Paylan said the results of the elections didn’t meet the expectations of the Armenian community in Istanbul.
“Armenians in Turkey are already in fear. Before 2015, we used to talk about our issues, but after that the Armenians became more silent. We were hoping that something would change as a result of these elections, but that didn’t happen. Unfortunately, Armenians will become more voiceless in this period,” Paylan said.