Turkish Lawmakers Could Face Punishment Over Armenian Genocide Remarks

ANKARA — Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a far-right political party that adheres to Turkish ultranationalism, have drafted new Rules of Procedure for the country’s Parliament. The 18-point document, in part, envisages limiting the words used by the opposition.

The new bill stipulates imposing fines on those lawmakers who will use the “Armenian Genocide” and “Kurdistan” terms. Deputies will be fined 12,000 liras for “insulting the Turkish nation and its history”, which makes up to two-thirds of an MP’s salary (the salary of deputies is $ 5,900 ), Hurriyet reports.

The draft law also features a series of nationalist clauses, one of which reads: “Nation is a religious and ethnic group brought together around the common values, fate and future developed through historical processes.”

Earlier this year, Istanbul-Armenian MP, Garo Paylan was punished for using the word “Genocide” and was deprived of the right to participate in the next three parliamentary sessions. Later, it was proposed to deprive him of his deputy mandate for “inciting ethnic hatred.”