ISTANBUL — Seven members of Istanbul’s Armenian community are seeking parliamentary deputy posts, holding out the promise that the June general elections may see the group represented in Parliament for the first time in five decades, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Six of the candidates have been offered nominations by political parties, while one is running as an independent.
“I am an Armenian, but I am also a part of the whole. If I join Parliament, of course I will bring my community’s problems to the fore. But I would like to represent the whole [country] as well,” Arev Cebeci, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP told the daily.
In one of the three Istanbul constituencies, where many Armenians reside, independent Armenian candidates will run for Parliament.
The Armenian community in Turkey has not had a representative in Turkey’s law-making body since the 1960s.
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