Turkey’s Armenian MP Garo Paylan: I want “new world” founded on equality

We need more MPs like Garo Paylan both in Turkey and Armenia, and beyond. The world, and the world of politics, will be a better place with them.

Highly recommend this interview by Armenian Weekly’s Nanore Barsoumian with the newly elected ethnic Armenian MP of the Turkey parliament from progressive LGBT-friendly HDP party.

*Garo Paylan (Photo: Nanore Barsoumian)

Selected extracts below /emphasis mine/:

“Three weeks after his election into Turkey’s Parliament on the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) list, Garo Paylan spoke to the Armenian Weekly about his path to parliament, and the challenges of being an Armenian in Turkey’s political scene.

During the interview conducted in Istanbul, Paylan also discussed issues that are close to his heart, including the HDP’s politics and commitment to creating what he terms a “new world” founded on equality.”

Says Garo Paylan: “Turkish citizens want the change—so they will vote for whoever speaks the new language for them. We wanted equality, and they heard us. It’s the radical democrats that for the first time are offering equality. We are radical democrats and we have everyone sitting at our table. This is why we have to struggle for LGBT rights, for the Armenians, the Kurds, and the Alevis. We have to offer equality to every identity.

Of course, we had some concerns. For instance, we were concerned that people were not ready to hear about the Armenian Genocide. Yet, we are vocal about the Armenian Genocide. We also support LGBT rights, and equality between men and women—everything that is considered radical about democracy. This is about [creating] a new world.”

“The AKP thought that insulting Armenians will gain them the Muslim votes, but it didn’t work. They tried to spotlight the fact that we had an LGBT candidate, thinking that it would affect the conservative vote, but it didn’t. There were other similar attempts, but they also failed. This is important. Our words won. We trust our words. This is what’s most important.”

Hevjin - first Kurdish LGBT magazine in Turkey

Eurasia.net reports on first ever groundbreaking LGBT magazine for Kurds in Turkey:

[...] For all their fear, however, the pair embarked on a radical experiment, launching the first-ever magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) Kurds this July. Called ‘Hevjin’, meaning ‘intercommunity’ in Kurdish, the first issue of the free publication is available online and in a few bookshops and cafés in Diyarbakir, a city with a large Kurdish population.

It took three years of patient work before Koya and Solin, both gay Kurds themselves, were ready to bring out the first issue. “There are 15 million Kurds in Turkey, and one in 10 people is gay, but where are the Kurdish gay people?” asked Solin. “That is the question that led to this. We wanted to find out how people express their sexuality in this culture.” [...]

“I don’t want to create a hierarchy in discrimination, but I would say that they [the Kurdish LGBT activists] are doubly discriminated against,” Oztop added. [Nevin Oztop, editor-in-chief of Turkey’s only other LGBT magazine, Kaos GL]

For their part, Koya and Solin affirmed that they feel locked in a twin struggle, one ethnic, the other sexual. Upsetting gay Turks and straight Kurds won’t stop them, they added.

They expressed hope that their periodical, Hevjin, would soon surpass 2,000 readers. Over the longer term, they seek to bring about the kind of change that will allow homosexuals to rally openly in Diyarbakir some day in the not too distant future. “In the past it was very popular for Kurds to say that there were no Kurdish homosexuals. We’ve already got to a point where it’s no longer possible for people to say this.”
***

You may access the magazine at http://www.hevjin.org (picture via Hevjin)

Piramid LGBTT - world's first Kurdish gay rights group

Thanks to the reader of Unzipped: Gay Armenia, below is the link to the blog of world's first Kurdish gay rights group - Piramid LGBTT (in Kurdish and Turkish):

http://piramidgl.blogspot.com/

"They are based in northern Kurdistan in the city of Diyarbakir. They are very active and arranging demonstrations, lectures, debates etc. This year was the first year ever that a gay organisation participated in the Kurdish Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir and in all of Kurdistan!"

In fact, in March 2008 I posted the story (mentioned above by the reader of this blog) on Kurdish gay rights group's first ever participation in Newroz celebration:

http://gayarmenia.blogspot.com/2008/03/gay-kurds-in-turkey-unfold-rainbow-flag.html

As I do not know Kurdish or Turkish, I won't be able to personally follow the blog, but will appreciate updates from readers of this blog who know either of these languages.

Gay Kurds in Turkey unfold rainbow flag and demand not only political freedom

A Diyarbakir “Outing”: “What are Gays Doing at Newroz?”

Bianet reports

A group of gay and lesbian Kurds in Diyarbakir decided that this year’s Newroz would not only be a call for political freedom, but also an honest declaration of their sexual identity.

Newroz is a political arena in Diyarbakir, the predominantly Kurdish city in the southeast of Turkey. We, a group of gays and lesbians of Diyarbakir, used to go as heterosexuals, shout our conflicting demands for freedom, dance, and celebrate with our heterosexual friends, saying “Newroz piroz be,” “Happy Newroz.”

In our heads there was always the question, “why, when everyone is demanding freedom, does my most basic right to life seem so frightening to people?”

Rainbow flag at Newroz


…This year, a lot changed in Diyarbakir.

Like everyone else, we were very excited about this year’s Newroz. Why? Because our group of gays decided to go to the celebrations as Piramid GL Diyarbakir. Although we would not be shouting slogans, we would unfold our rainbow flag in front of such a big crowd for the first time.

Worrying about some people’s reactions, we went to the Newroz site. And among the surprised looks of people around us, we also shouted for freedom, and we also waved our flag.

Surprise and heckling
…We started dancing, and as we got more excited, some of the surprised looks turned to attitudes of ridicule.

As time went on, more and more people noticed our flag and we became the focus of attention.

One person said aloud, “That’s the gay flag, what is that doing here?” While we were dancing, we overheard someone near us warn his friends “not to join those guys.” Others said things like, “Diyarbakir has become spoilt,” or “We should throw you into that Newroz fire,” and “Why are you here?”

Positive reactions
On the other hand, we also had positive experiences, like the people congratulating us and those telling us insistently “how much we respect you.”
Even if some people were made uncomfortable by our visibility, this time we transformed those negative attitudes into a positive energy, we danced and thus asked for freedom for ourselves.

We knew that we were only a handful of homosexuals in a crowd of hundreds of thousands, but we felt like a crowd, too.

We left the Newroz site with great honour and smiles on our face, having represented the gay and lesbian community of Diyarbakir. Newroz piroz be.

*photo via Bianet