After suffering from a long and heavy illness, famous Istanbul-Armenian journalist and deputy of the ruling political party Markar Esayan passed away in Istanbul.

The President of Turkey, the parliamentary speaker and several ministers and MPs wrote about the passing of Markar Esayan on their Twitter blogs.

Turkey’s health minister expressed condolences to the Armenian community of Istanbul and Esayan’s family and close ones.

Markar Esayan was 51 years old and had been battling cancer for a long time.