Markar Esayan
Markar Esayan is a Turkish author, journalist, and politician of Armenian descent. He is currently a Member of the Turkish Parliament for the Justice and Development Party representing Istanbul since 2015 and a member of his party's Central Decision-Making and Executive Board. He is one of the first Armenian members of Turkey's parliament in decades alongside Garo Paylan and Selina Özuzun Doğan.
He completed his elementary and secondary education at Private Bomonti Armenian Catholic Primary School, and his high school education at Private Getronagan Armenian High School. He graduated from Anadolu University Business Management School in 1995.
He first wrote intermittently for the Agos newspaper, and as a regular columnist from 2001, when Hrant Dink was the editor-in-chief, until about a year after Dink's assassination in 2007. Esayan also worked as the publishing coordinator and a columnist of Taraf daily newspaper, where he later temporarily assumed the role of editor-in-chief as well. He wrote for Yeni Şafak daily newspaper between 2013 and 2016 and has been writing for the daily newspaper Akşam since then.
His first novel, The Cramped Room of the Present, won the 2004 Grand Prize of İnkılâp Kitabevi, and was published in 2005. His second novel, Encounter, was published in October 2007. He also has two other non-fiction books, 60 Days That Stopped the World, and Good Things published in 2013.
Esayan has been an AKP Member of Parliament for İstanbul during the 25th, 26th and 27th Terms of TBMM. He was elected as the Vice Chairperson of the European Union Compliance Committee and member of Turkey - European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee.
