Turkey’s newly founded Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) nominated Armenian woman Nivart Bakircioglu as mayoral candidate for Bakirkoy Municipality of Metropolitan Istanbul.

Bakircioglu told Agos Armenian weekly of Istanbul that she was following with great enthusiasm the activities of the new party, which has Armenian members, too.

“Subsequently, the party proposed me to run for mayor in Bakirkoy, to which I replied positively. It’s very important to live in peace and equality,” she said.

Nivart Bakircioglu also informed that she was born in Adiyaman in 1974, but she spent her childhood in Iskenderun.

“We live in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy for the past fifteen years. My grandfather was a forcibly Islamized Armenian. When Agos started to be published, the process began for the return to our [Armenian] identity,” Nivart Bakircioglu noted.