Turkish-Armenian lawmaker threatened over genocide remarks
A criminal complaint was filed against Turkish lawmaker Umit Ozdag after he threatened Garo Paylan, an Armenian deputy with the Peoples’ Democratic Party, over remarks regarding the Armenian genocide.
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Human Rights Association (IHD) filed a criminal complaint Tuesday against independent lawmaker Umit Ozdag over threats toward Garo Paylan, an Armenian deputy with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), following remarks Paylan shared on Twitter regarding the Armenian genocide.
The news comes as tensions remain high in Turkey following Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24, during which US President Joe Biden broke with his predecessors and recognized the 1915 mass killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottomans as genocide in a statement, putting further strain on US-Turkey relations.
On Saturday, Paylan shared a tweet criticizing the fact that streets and schools in Turkey are currently named after Talaat Pasha, a leading architect of the Armenian genocide who served as the Ottoman Empire’s interior minister at the time of the events, comparing the situation to schools being named after Adolf Hitler in Germany.
The message drew anger from Turkish nationalists. Ozdag quoted the tweet Tuesday, calling Paylan a “shameless, provocative man” and threatening him with the same fate met by Armenians at the end of the Ottoman era.
