Garo Paylan, the Armenian parliamentarian of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), delivered a speech in the Turkish Parliament on Dec. 24, 2015. Once again, he started his speech by saluting the assembly in his native language, “Parev tsez.” In his impressive address, he focused on issues concerning the Christian minority in Turkey, political corruption, the cover-ups of the corruption trial files, and the inhumane acts that continue to cause the death of many citizens. Below is the English translation of Paylan’s speech.
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Dear Members of Parliament,
Once again, we are witnessing days where evil is commonplace. In this land, evil acts have repeatedly been ordinary…
MP Garo Paylan at the HDP Parliamentary office in Ankara (Photo: Rupen Janbazian)
Later on, they were covered up, and that malicious reasoning, that malevolent mentality, that ruthless state tradition, continued to be evil—always with new subcontractors and new actors… Unfortunately, these days are once again like those days when evil was commonplace.
And on such days, I would like to talk about a holiday that concerns us. Maybe our dear MPs are not that interested, but today is this land’s old festal day and we aren’t even aware of it… Today is Christian Christmas; our parliament didn’t felicitate the Christmas holiday. Once upon a time, there were many Christians living on our land; we were almost 40 percent of the population… Today, we have diminished to only 1 percent. This happened despite our will—we didn’t immigrate to another place; we were diminished on this land. But even if we were small in number, even if we were only 1 person…this parliament, as it used to be in its history, must have given importance to the Christmas holiday. Until 1915, Christmas was important in this land. Before 1915, on this very same day, people used to celebrate; they used to celebrate the Christian feast, just like Christians used to celebrate the Muslim feasts. The Christmas holiday was a recess date for the parliament, just like the Muslim holidays were. Accordingly, we should take into consideration those holidays that concern the minorities.
And let me tell you one more thing about Christmas: Today is also St. Nicolas’s or so-called Santa Claus’s day. Where was he from? St. Nicolas was from Antalya… We do have AKP [Justice and Democracy Party] parliamentarians from Antalya; I don’t know if they knew this fact, so he [St. Nicolas] is from your land, maybe he is even your relative, because many Christians became Muslims… So think about it: A valuable figure from this land is being booed and described with hatred just because we do not have a sense of history in this land. We believe that this hatefulness will be overcome when people become aware of history. It must be announced that Santa Claus is a notable figure from this land.
‘Today, in Turkey, malice is occurring in Cizre, Nusaybin, Sur… When we say that people are dying, children and youth are dying… I can see the AKP MPs are smiling. You don’t have mercy? Soldiers, policemen, guerillas, civilians, children…they are all humans; every death is subtracting people from us. I am not able to sleep comfortably; are you able to sleep when you put your heads on the pillow?’
Concerning our topic about “Dec. 25” [In other words, the 2013 corruption scandal* in Turkey], “Dec. 25” wasn’t the country’s first corruption file, and—too bad—it will not be the last one, because evil has become ordinary, as I said. Corruption has always happened, and every corruption has paved the way for erosion in the morality of society. Now, you are talking about it correctly, whether it was a coup d’état attempt,** or whether there were other calculations behind it [the scandal]… Yes, there were other calculations; of course, they have been calculating it. How did we know all of this? We are the ones who know these things very well; I’m the one who knows these perfectly… I know it from Hrant Dink’s file… The one who prepared the “Dec. 25” investigation file is Muammer Akkas [a prosecutor]. For years, I urged Akkas to allow the hearing of the trial to be held in public, but he always delayed it and covered it up so that the public officials would not be in trouble. We do know Muammer Akkas’s calculations…
We also know his calculations from the KCK [Group of Communities in Kurdistan] trial, and from the files of those who were detained on charges of just passing by the BDP’s [Peace and Democracy Party] door… See what has happened—all the files that were prepared by this structure were covered up, and the corruption file was covered up by the parliament, and the judiciary has closed all the files except one, the KCK file. There are thousands of Kurds who are arrested just because they are detained under fabricated charges. Yes, we do know this structure and we know it very well…
Dear MPs, you’re saying that it was a coup… Even if it was a coup, what happened? How did we pass over this [Dec. 25] file? Just because the majority in parliament raised their hands, we passed over it! I am the representative of a diminished group from this population; we are only 1 percent—who’s going to protect our rights? We are saying that the minorities are also citizens, therefore their schools can receive aid from the public budget. If this country is based on equality, then churches must receive services just like mosques. And if there is a law concerning our people that will pass here, who’s going to protect our rights? What will happen? The majority will raise their hands and everything will be covered up? When they say that they have closed the corruption files, are they relieved from their guilty consciences? By covering up the corruption files you are abusing social morality; every corruption file must be presented to the judiciary through a committee and judged accordingly.
Evil is continuing to become commonplace, but this time not only through corruption, but also through deaths. Each crime file that is covered leads to another death. Today, in Turkey, malice is occurring in Cizre, Nusaybin, Sur… When we say that people are dying, children and youth are dying… I can see the AKP MPs are smiling. You don’t have mercy? Soldiers, policemen, guerillas, civilians, children…they are all humans; every death is subtracting people from us. I am not able to sleep comfortably; are you able to sleep when you put your heads on the pillow? It’s been 10 days that there are curfews in Sur, Cizre, and Nusaybin. These curfews must be removed as soon as possible.
Discussion solves all problems, and the past three years of discussions has proved so. In order to stop evil acts from being ordinary and redundant, we must seek solutions as soon as possible. I’m hoping that curfews will be removed soon and that the parliament will have the will to work in this direction.
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As Paylan was leaving the rostrum after finishing his speech, Nurettin Yaşar, the AKP MP from Malatya, called out, “Garo!” Yaşar approached and shook hands with Paylan, wishing him a Merry Christmas.
After the speech, the deputy speaker offered an apology in the name of the Council of Speakers for being late in felicitating the Christmas holiday.
*The 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey refers to an investigation of key members in the Turkish government, all connected to the AKP. The investigation centered around corruption, bribery, money laundering, and fraud. On Dec. 25, 2013, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the reshuffle of ten members of his cabinet in light of a corruption scandal. He said the reshuffle was aimed at replacing three ministers who had resigned and others who were going to run in local elections in 2014.
**Following the corruption scandal, 350 police officers, including officers dealing with financial crimes, were removed from their positions. Erdogan had described the investigation as a “judicial coup.”
Source: Armenian Weekly
Link: Paylan to Fellow MPs: Are You Able to Sleep at Night?