Armenian Deputy of the Turkish Mejlis Garo Paylan has commented on the attack that was organized against him by deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on 2 May.

According to the Turkish IMC TV, Paylan stated that the attack was planned and that some of the deputies had even called out to each other, saying “Garo is here, Garo is here”.

The Armenian Deputy said 10-15 people had planned to ��?lynch’ him because he was Armenian and was defending human rights.

“You can check the committee’s records. The Minister of Justice declared that the deputies and advisors of the Democratic Party of Nations (HDP) had applied violence during the previous session. I said they hadn’t applied violence. I just said that. After that, I was attacked,” Paylan said.

Paylan also informed that he was charged with making a provocative statement, but in reality, he just made the following statement:

“It is clear that they had targeted me. Several deputies definitely moved towards me. I simply turned into a target, and in 20-30 seconds, they hit me with their feet and fists about 100 times. Later, they made nationalist statements and expressed words of hatred against me.”

Paylan stated that he wasn’t going to demand an investigation into the incident because the discussion on the matter within that committee wouldn’t lead to any outcome. He stressed that he was leaving this up to the society.

“As far as the motive is concerned, I can say it is my Armenian identity because the statements were full of hatred and were against my national identity. They can’t tolerate the fact that an Armenian is revealing their lies and isn’t going down. They want to see an Armenian who submits to them. As an Armenian fighting for my rights, I simply became a target and was ��?lynched’,” the Armenian Deputy concluded, according to ermenihaber.am.

Let us remind that during the May 2 session of the constitutional committee of the Turkish Parliament, which was discussing the issue on the immunity of certain deputies, the representatives of the opposition pro-Kurdish HDP and the ruling AKP got into another dispute. As is seen in the video recording of the session, the dispute directly arose from the attack that a group of deputies had organized against Armenian Deputy Paylan.