BOYCOTT: DASHNAKS REFUSE TO MEET PACE’S TURKISH HEAD AFTER HE REFUSES TO VISIT GENOCIDE MEMORIAL
Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
News | 12.05.10 | 12:31
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish president of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE), was starting his visit to Armenia on
Wednesday amid a boycott from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun), which has refused to have a meeting with the
visiting European official, citing the latter’s refusal to honor the
1915 Armenian Genocide victims at a Yerevan memorial.
According to unofficial reports, originally Cavusoglu was expected
to arrive in Yerevan on an official visit, which supposes that senior
guests and visiting high-ranking officials shall visit Tsitsernakaberd,
a hilltop complex in Yerevan built in memory of more than 1.5
million Armenians massacred in Ottoman Turkey at the beginning of
last century. However, the official refused to pay a visit to the
memorial, which prompted the authorities to change the status into
a working visit, during which a Tsitsernakaberd visit is not required.
"This breach of the official procedure clearly shows that Cavusoglu is
visiting Armenia not so much as PACE head as a Turkish politician,"
ARF parliamentary faction head Vahan Hovhannisyan told ArmeniaNow,
adding that in such conditions the party does not find it expedient
to meet Cavusoglu.
(Such meetings between the visiting PACE head and political parties
of the host country are also part of the procedure).
Hovhannisyan stressed that any foreign official who is on an official
visit to Armenia, regardless of whether his or her country has
recognized the Armenian Genocide or not, visits Tsitsernakaberd.
"This is disrespect and we should show an adequate attitude towards
the Turkish politician," said Hovhannisyan, calling on other political
forces to follow suit.
Meanwhile, the head of the other opposition faction in parliament
thinks boycott is a belated measure.
Said Heritage’s Stepan Safaryan: "The ARF should have thought about
these risks when it refused to join our faction’s move to prevent
Cavusoglu from becoming [PACE] president still when we were warning
that a Turkish head of PACE would be a serious threat."
Cavusoglu was elected PACE president in January this year.
Still in November 2009, member of the Armenian delegation to PACE
Zaruhi Postanjyan, representing Heritage, submitted a draft resolution
to PACE according to which representatives of countries that are at
the stage of monitoring or post-monitoring cannot assume the post of
PACE presidency (Turkey is at the stage of post-monitoring). Despite
the fact that about a dozen Council of Europe member countries joined
the initiative, the other members of the Armenian delegation, including
ARF, refused to second it.