The member of any political party who is being harassed or beaten or detained in any way would be of concern to us, Mark Toner, Deputy Spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, noted at Thursday’s press briefing.

He stated this with respect to the attacks and violence in the Turkish parliament, and against Istanbul Armenian activist Garo Paylan, who is also an MP from the pro-Kurdish “Peoples’ Democratic Party” (HDP) of Turkey.   

In particular, Toner was asked: “The Armenian National Committee of America – it’s a lobby group in Washington, D.C. – has called upon U.S. Ambassador to Turkey John Bass to publicly voice official U.S. concern regarding the safety of Garo Paylan, an ethnic Armenian elected to the Turkish parliament. So what we have is Garo Paylan, who is representing Turkish Armenian community and a member of HDP Kurdish party, has been both physically and verbally attacked by members of AKP ruling party in the parliament. Do you follow the situation, have any comment, or any concerns regarding his safety?”

And the U.S. State Department representative responded: “I don’t have the details of this particular individual or his case. I’d have to look into it, to be frank. I mean, obviously, the member of any political party who is being harassed or beaten or detained in any way would be of concern to us. But I don’t have the particulars here, so I’m going to refrain from further comment.”  

During the recent Turkish parliament debates on the bill with respect to lifting the Kurdish MPs’ parliamentary immunity, lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) attacked the Kurdish deputies for three days. And on Tuesday, Paylan himself was the main target of the AKP members.

Later, the Armenian MP said the AKP representatives had deliberately targeted him during the scuffle.