ISTANBUL, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. Istanbul-based Armenian Raffi Bilal has been elected deputy chairman for external relations of the Social-Democratic People's Party (SHP) of Turkey. According to Marmara daily, at the June 15 sitting of the party's board, Bilal was elected a member of the chairmanship, then he was elected deputy chairman of the party during a meeting of the central administrative board. Raffi Bilal is one of the founders of the Social-Democratic People's Party. After the creation of the party, he was elected a member of its board in 2002. In 2005 he started to work as a person in charge of the EU platform, and since 2008 he has been assisant of the secretary-general of the SHP's central administrative board. Besides Bilal, the party board had another member of Armenian descent - Talin Manuelian, Marmara reported.

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