ANKARA—A Turkish-Armenian organisation, Nor Zartonk (New Renaissance), has declared its support for Selahattin Demirtas in the presidential elections to be held on Aug. 10.

 

Issuing a written statement, Nor Zartonk said: “The people, workers, and all the excluded have an alternative in these elections against the conservative, nationalist, and statist tradition,” pointing to Demirtas.

Nor Zartonk emphasized that the candidate of the ruling party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been a person continuing to pursue a century-old state policy of denial, adding that the joint candidate of CHP-MHP Ekmeleddin İhsanoglu is “a candidate to be the new face of the moderate Islam project”.

Nor Zartonk added:

“The people of Turkey are not condemned to these two right wing candidates, one being an exact copy of the other despite their being promoted in that way. The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Selahattin Demirtas, as ‘the candidate of the people and of change’ is the hope of all the working people in the August elections.

“Against the two self-same candidates who are in favor of the continuation of the statist policies and the policies of denial, our presidential candidate is Selahattin Demirtas, who marches hand in hand with the people from Sivas to Lice, who exclaims the reality of the Armenian genocide in parliament, has struggled against all kinds of discrimination throughout his life and who defends the rights of the workers, LGBTI individuals and all the oppressed.”

Nor Zartonk (Renaissance) is an Armenian organisation defining itself as the “self-organisation” of the Armenian people. Having as their point of focus the Armenian people living in Turkey, Nor Zartonk says they struggle for the co-existence of all the peoples of Turkey and the world in equality, peace and fraternity. Nor Zartonk also declares that they have no hierarchical structure or administrative positions amongst themselves.