ISTANBUL. – The Democratic Peoples’ Congress of Turkey held a march Sunday to protest the recent attacks against Armenians, in Istanbul’s densely-Armenian-populated Samatya district, as a result of which an elderly Armenian woman was killed, two others lost one of their eyes, and an attempt was made to kidnap another.

Past and present MPs as well as Khosrov Dink, the brother of Hrant Dink—the founder and chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly, who was gunned down in 2007 in front of his office building—and many others took part in the event, Agos reports.

During the march, the protesters held banners that read: “Don’t touch my Armenian neighbor!”, “Hatred is yours, humanity is ours”, and “We are with the Armenian people, we will not allow racism”.

At the end of the march, MP Ertugrul Kurkcu spoke at Samatya Square and stressed that the aforesaid attacks against Armenians were carried out as a result of xenophobia. Also, he raised a suspicion that the police may be responsible for these attacks.