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On June 22, the report on the theme “The Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Turkey” was on the agenda of the Plenary Meeting of PACE Summer Session, during which the Head of the RA NA Delegation to PACE, the RA NA Vice President Hermine Naghdalyan delivered a speech, strongly condemning the democratic situation in Turkey.

Thanking the rapporteurs Ms Godskesen and Ms Vučković  for considerable work done on the report and its comprehensive nature, Mrs Naghdalyan in her word has noted that the document highlights all those serious concerns that Turkey should address without further delay. This report clearly indicates the lack of large scale democratic institutions in Turkey.

Amongst numerous problems and serious violations in the fields of rule of law, legislation, judiciary, relations between communities, the report also makes a particular reference to restrictions of the freedom of expression and of media, political influence on media, prosecution of investigative journalists, academicians and ordinary citizens.

“Any attempt to deliver a true piece of information , which differs from the official position, is persecuted and oppressed in Turkey ,” Mrs Naghdalyan noted in her speech, o ne of the first victims of this depressive policy , mentioning Hrant Dink, prominent Turkish j ournalist of Armenian decent , who was cynically killed in Istanbul  in 2007. “Dink had raised the issue of the Armenian Genocide ; he advocated reconciliation between Turk ish and Armenian societies, struggled for the human dignity and freedoms in his country – Turkey ,” hermine Naghdalyan noted.

The NA Vice President expressed concern and drew her European colleagues’ attention to the bill passed on 20 May Turkish Parliament allowing criminal charges to be brought against legislators.

“The new law is aimed at Turkish oppositional lawmakers. Our colleagues representing opposition in Turkey are in real danger. I would like to recall that in 1915 first victims were Members of the Turkish Parliament of Armenian origin, that is a millennium has passed, and what methods they used 101 years to solve the Armenians’ issue, so today they solve the Kurds’ issue. Let’s prevent the repetition of history,” Mrs Naghdalyan voiced.

Expressing her gratitude to her German MPs in relation to the recent adoption of the resolution on the Armenian Genocide by the German Bundestag , recorded that that Resolution caused a storm of indignation of Turkish authorities. Mrs Naghdalyan has documented that the German lagislators faced unprecendented display of hate speech and intimidation. Initiators of the Resolution received anonymous death threats; some of them had been placed under police protection. President Erdogan demanded blood test for the German MPs of Turkish origin , meanwhile as the President of the German Bundestag noted ‘ ... the era of defining people by blood is ended in 1945... ’

“ Unfortunately not in Turkey, Mr . Lammert ,” Hermine Naghdalyan concluded.

In her speech Hermine Naghdalyan also touched upon the problem of the preservation of cultural heritage .

“ Historically, there are thousands of Armenian cultural and spiritual monument s on the territotry of modern Turkey , which are continuously and purposely destructed. This is a pre pla n ned policy of the Turkish Government to eliminate material testimonies of the Armenian culture ,” Mrs Naghdalyan said, adding that the Genocide of 1915 now is continued in the shape of cultural genocide against the Armenian heritage .

“Modern Turkey becomes the Turkey of the Ottoman times – direct heir of the values acting in the Empire... ,” Hermine Naghdalyan has underlined in her word, calling on her European parliamentarians as a first step and, first of all, to the benefit of Turkey, to apply to monitoring procedure in that country.