“Seven members of Istanbul’s Armenian community are seeking parliamentary deputy posts, holding out the promise that the June general elections may see the group represented in Parliament for the first time in five decades,” Hurriyet Daily News reports.
According to the source, six have been offered nominations by political parties, while one is likely to join the chase as an independent deputy nominee.
“I am an Armenian, but I am also a part of the whole. If I join Parliament, of course I will bring my community’s problems to the fore. But I would like to represent the whole [country] as well,” Arev Cebeci, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP told the daily.
In fifty years, in the June 2011 parliamentary elections in Turkey Armenian candidates will run for Parliament, Rober Koptas, Editor-in-Chief of the Istanbul-based Armenian weekly Agos, had earlier told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
“In one of the three Istanbul constituencies, where many Armenians reside, independent Armenian candidates will run for Parliament. They will be named after everything is clear,” he said.
