The Constitutional Court of Turkey denied the appeal by Garo Paylan, Istanbul Armenian MP of the opposition pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of the country, to revoke the penalty which the Turkish parliament headship had set against him, according to Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul.
In his remarks at a Turkish parliament session, Paylan spoke also about Armenian Genocide. Subsequently, and as penalty, the parliament headship banned him from attending three sessions plus his remarks about the genocide were removed from the minutes of this session.
And after the constitutional court’s rejection of the aforesaid appeal, Garo Paylan has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
“If only a court of my country [i.e. Turkey] had resolved this; [if only] they had made a decision to remove this decision that deals a blow to democracy,” said Paylan. “[But] it didn’t happen like that. At this point, we will go to the ECtHR.”