‘Why don’t you stop the construction on Armenian cemetery?’

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Garo Paylan has submitted a Parliamentary question regarding the ongoing construction works undertaken by the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) on an Armenian and Catholic cemetery in Ulus, Ankara.

The Ankara Branch of the Chamber of Architects previously announced that the excavation was illegally ongoing in an area allocated for the reconstruction of the Provincial Bank, which had been demolished. It also noted that there was an Armenian and Catholic cemetery in the construction site, adding that human bones were found during excavation.

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Accordingly, in his Parliamentary question addressed to Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum, HDP MP Paylan has said that even though the officials from the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations examined the area, concrete is still being poured there.

"In spite of this, the construction is still ongoing and concrete is being poured on the area where the graves are located. It has been detected that there is an historical church and hamam in the area registered as an Armenian and Catholic Cemetery in the sources. This attack on graves and urban memory causes public outrage," Garo Paylan has said.

The MP has then asked the following questions:

1. Why is the TOKİ construction on Armenian cemetery not stopped?
2. Are you aware that the TOKİ is destroying the cultural assets and urban memory of Ankara?
3. Why are you pouring concrete on the bones and cultural assets of Anatolia's Armenians? (AÖ/SD)