Istanbul-Armenian Deputy of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Democratic Party of Nations (HDP) Garo Paylan has submitted to the parliament an interpellation addressed to Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus.

As reported Ermenihaber, Paylan’s interpellation concerned the Deputy Prime Minister’s statement in which he had used the term “giaour”.

The source states that Kurtulmus made the following statements during his meeting with the leaders of local self-government bodies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“Call giaours giaours and go against them-this is what you refer to as Turkish Islam and one of the main peculiarities of this great civilization that we have today. We need to treat this issue of independence seriously. For us, independence means going against giaours by calling them giaours.”

With his interpellation, Paylan demanded that Kurtulmus answer the following questions:

1. Don’t you think that you are offending the non-Muslim nations and the Christian community (a member of which I am) of Turkey with the word “giaour” which, according to the Turkish linguistic society, means (a) infidel (b) non-Muslim, and according to Sevan Nishanian’s dictionary-(a) Zoroastrian, fire-worshiper, (b) non-Muslim, infidel, and is used within the humiliating, degrading and vilifying meanings in several sayings and word-combinations?

2. The “statement that derogates or threatens a certain group or individual, race, gender, age, nation, religion, sexual orientation and other issues” is considered rhetoric of hate. Haven’t you thought that your above-mentioned statements contain hatred?

3. Taking into consideration the fact that such statements are turning into crimes that are being committed on the ground of hatred, haven’t you thought that your statements may become a reason for the committal of crimes based on hatred?