From now on, the religious affiliation of a person won’t be mandatory on the new identification cards to be issued in Turkey, reports the Turkish Hurriyet, according to “Artsakhpress”.

Taking into consideration the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in this regard, religious affiliation may be noted on the identification cards only upon the desire of the given person. Moreover, in that case, religion won’t be noted on the card, but on the electronic chip.

Earlier, Turkish-Armenian member of the Democratic Party of Nations Garo Paylan had presented a demand in the Turkish parliament to remove the note about religious affiliation from identification card. In response to the inquiry, Turkey’s Minister of Internal Affairs EfkanAla had informed that “the code of a religion” would no longer be noted in the new identification cards.

The new Turkish identification cards will be issued to citizens within the next three years.