Funeral of ruling AKP lawmaker to take place on Oct 22

ISTANBUL

Turkish-Armenian lawmaker Markar Esayan will be buried on Oct. 22 in Istanbul, after a religious ceremony to be held in a church with a limited number of participants due to the pandemic.

There will be no official state ceremony upon his family’s request.

His burial ceremony will take place at the Armenian Cemetery in Istanbul’s Şişli district.

Esayan died in hospital after he was taken under intensive care on Oct. 16 due to difficulty in breathing, according to the chief physician of the hospital.

Esayan was a journalist and became a member of parliament representing Istanbul for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2015.

The 51-year-old had a fatal stomach disease for which he had been receiving treatment for one-and-a-half years.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ministers, politicians and public figures also extended their condolences over the death of Esayan.

He is the author of five books, which were published between 2005 and 2015.

Esayan was one of the few Turkish-Armenian lawmakers to have had a seat in parliament throughout modern Turkish history.