Sevket Temiz, a Socialist member of the parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region since 2014, has been barred from the board of a university hospital in the Belgian capital because he denies the Armenian Genocide, Turkish media publications reveal.

Temiz, 47, was nominated by his party to join the board of Brugmann University Hospital ahead of an election to the post.

A Belgium-based group against genocide crimes sent a letter to Brussels Mayor Philip Close demanding that Temiz unconditionally accept that the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey was Genocide.

The hospital’s board of doctors has also announced that it will protest Temiz’s candidacy if he fails to accept the historical truth.

Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Turkey denies to this day.