Markar Esayan

Markar Esayan (4 February 1969 – 16 October 2020) was an Armenian author, journalist, and politician of Turkey. He was a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Justice and Development Party representing Istanbul since 2015 and a member of his party's Central Decision-Making and Executive Board. 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. and for the daily newspaper Akşam since then until September 2020.

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. Jerusalem was his third novel, which was published in 2011.

He also has two other non-fiction books: Good Things, published in 2011, includes his various articles and essays. 60 Days That Stopped the World: Square, Coup d'etat, Democracy, co-authored with Cemil Ertem and published in 2013, offers a comprehensive analysis of Gezi Park protests in a broad historical and geographical context. He was elected as the Vice Chairperson of the European Union Compliance Committee and member of Turkey – European Union Joint Parliamentary Committee.

In an interview published in daily Yeni Şafak on 6 July 2015, Markar Esayan said:

Esayan died on 16 October 2020 from gastric cancer, aged 51.