Armenian Candidate Tops Turkey\’s Main Opposition List for Elections

ISTANBUL (Hurriyet Daily) — The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has named an Armenian candidate in the first place on their final candidate list for the upcoming elections on June 7 in a move to prioritize candidates with different backgrounds, according to the media reports.

Lawyer Selina Özuzun Dogan has been named by the CHP in the first place for Istanbul’s second region in the June 7 elections.

Born in 1977, Özuzun is a graduate of Notre Dame De Sion French High School and studied law at Galatasaray University. She also has a master’s degree from Istanbul’s Bilgi University. She speaks Armenian, French and English.

CHP head Kemal Kiliçdaroglu had previously declared he would reserve the first places of important cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir for female candidates.

In this way, Kiliçdaroglu has strengthened the Istanbul second region with his Armenian, Kurdish, academic and journalist quota choices against the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) candidates. The other quota candidates respectively include deputy CHP head Sezgin Tanrikulu, sociologist Sencer Ayata and journalist Enis Berberoglu.

All political parties submitted their candidate lists to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) on April 7.

Özuzun’s candidacy could be possible after Kiliçdaroglu’s meeting with the representatives of minority groups last week.

Kiliçdaroglu welcomed a request by the minority groups to have a representative at the Parliament from the ranks of the CHP and proposed them to introduce their common nominee. The name of Uzuzun, who has long been serving as the lawyer of the minority foundations, has been introduced to the CHP after in-house consultations of the minority groups.