HDP İstanbul MP Garo Paylan issued a written statement and remarked that the arguments and fighting that occurred in the Constitutional Commission during the discussions for the lifting of parliamentary immunities on May 2, 2016 was a premeditated, programatic lynching attempt.

Paylan’s declaration states the following:

“There were news about me ‘lighting the fuse’ to the fight and that I was ‘provoking’ in the ‘pool media’, they have blatantly distorted the truth by saying the HDP MPs caused the physical violence.

But what I did was to tell the Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ that that wasn’t the case when he said ‘The advisors of the MPs took part in the violence’. As can be seen in the record, there is no provocation in my speech.

Following this, as can be seen in the footage, the fight broke out when AKP İstanbul MP Mehmet Metiner physically attacked me, and the planned lynching began.

The physical attack intensified, and the AKP MPs targeted me with calls like “Come, Garo is here!” and with sentences including hate speech against my Armenian identity.

In addition to the attacks targeted at HDP MPs since last week, I was targeted by AKP MPs personally and with hate speech against my Armenian identity.

This shows that these attacks are attempts at lynching that were specifically planned by the AKP MPs and that they have chosen me as their target.

I condemn hate speech and hate crimes against my person and my identity.

Let us not forget, the fascists are cowardly, but they attack in groups and treacherously.”