Garo Paylan: Tahir Elçi’s Murder Similar to Hrant Dink\’s Assassionation

ANKARA — Armenian MP Garo Paylan greeted his colleagues at the Turkish Parliament in Armenian “Barev dzez”, Ermenihaber.am reports, quoting the Turkish Milliyet.

Addressing the Parliament, Paylan from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) referred to the killing of Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist Tahir Elci in Diyarbakir. He compared Elci with Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, calling him a “dove of peace.”

The Armenian MP strongly criticized the authorities. “There is dust on the state ‘three fingers thick.’ Our duty is to clean the dust, instead of hiding it. We covered the murder of Hrant Dink, which led to the reoccurrence of the crime. Another “dove of peace” – Tahir Elci was killed,” Paylan said.

“Like Hrant Dink, Elci was committed to fighting for the sake of to peace, brotherhood and democracy. Both were killed. And this is the result of the dust that has covered the state,” he said.

HDP’s group deputy chairman and Diyarbakir MP Idris Baluken made an application to Turkish parliamentray speaker’s office for a parliamentary investigation on the murder of Tahir Elçi.

Baluken stated that the murder of Tahir Elçi must be politically assessed. In his petition, he reminded the statements of Tahir Elçi that he made before his murder: “In this ancient region, in this place that belongs to humanity, we don’t want clashes, operations and wars anymore.”

Pointing out that Elçi devoted his life to find and punish the perpetrators of unidentified murders, Baluken also reminded the process of Hrant Dink’s assassionation.

“Tahir Elçi devoted his life to human rights and legal struggles. He focused on the unidentified murders and tried to find and punish the perpetrators. The attitude of state toward his murder shows that they try to manipulate the case with contradictory statements, rather than solving it. Pro-government media organs publish all kinds of indecent stories in order to contribute to this manipulation. However, the legacy of struggle that is left by Tahir Elçi will be carried by his colleagues and the people who think like him. Carrying the judicial procedure of Tahir Elçi’s murder is the duty and responsibility of the judicial authorities, but the parliament should also be a part of this investigation, since this murder has a political dimension and he was killed because of a lynching regime.”