Three Armenians - Garapet (Garo) Paylan, who ran on the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) list, Markar Esayan from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Selina Ozuzun Dogan from the Republican People's Party (CHP) - have been elected to the Turkish parliament of the 25th convocation, according to Turkish media.
According to 99 percent of the votes counted, AKP garnered around 41 percent of the votes (258 seats) in today's parliamentary election, based on data released by the state-run TRT. HDP, on the other hand, broke the 10 percent barrier and received around 13 percent of the votes, gaining 79 seats in Parliament, while CHP earned 25 percent (132 seats), and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 16 percent (81 seats).
The AKP needed 367 seats in order to introduce the "new constitution," an objective President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had talked about on many occasions. The new constitution would have turned Turkey from a parliamentary system into an executive presidency, giving the president more powers. The AKP's support was down from the 50 percent of the votes (327 seats) it received in the 2011 election, according to Armenian Weekly.