Garo Paylan to Appeal to European Court of Human Rights

ISTANBUL — Armenian Deputy of the Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after getting rejected by the Constitutional Court of Turkey, Agos reports.

“I wish the court of my country would have solved the problem. If the court would have issued a verdict on eliminating that decision which is a blow to democracy, the situation would be different. In this case I am going to appeal to the ECHR”, Paylan said.

On January 13, Garo Paylan took the floor in the parliament, but his speech was interrupted because he used the word “genocide”. His speech was deleted from the parliamentary minutes and he was banned from the parliament for 3 sessions.

Garo Paylan appealed to the Constitutional Court on the grounds of “violation of parliamentary immunity and abolishment of freedom of expression” and he demanded the decision is reversed. The Court rejected Garo Paylan’s demand on February 27.

Another Turkish Court denied launching a lawsuit against a Turkish TV host who verbally abused Paylan by calling him “bastard”.

The General Prosecution of Ankara cited the European Human Rights Convention and said politicians should display flexibility against criticism.

In response to Paylan’s Parliament speech on January 13, Özlem Özcan, a TV host, commented on the issue on Twitter, saying : “If Genocide did happen, what is a bastard like you doing in the Parliament”.