Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 15 2010
Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu vows to be objective on Nagorno-Karabakh
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President
Mevlüt Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu said he will be objective in his approach to the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, during a
two-day visit to the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu told a news conference on Thursday that he did not want to
comment on previous speeches slamming Armenia for occupying 20 percent
of Azerbaijani territory that he made at PACE sessions while head of
the Turkish delegation. He said for him, all 47 members of the Council
of Europe are equal and that he would retain his objectivity as he has
in many matters.
Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu rejected allegations that he could not be neutral as the
head of PACE because he is a Turkish politician. He said he has a
reputation of being one of the most unbiased parliamentary delegates
and that it was due to that reputation that he was elected PACE
president.
When asked why he did not want to visit the memorial commemorating the
victims of the 1915 incidents, Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu noted that his predecessors
did not visit the site, either.
`There is no provision in the regulations that would require the
[PACE] president to visit one place or another. When I look at the
official agenda of the visits of my predecessors, Luis Maria de Puig
and Rede Van der Linden, I see that they did not visit that place
during their visits to Armenia, either,’ Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu said, adding that
it was his personal decision not to visit, which he said must be
respected.
During his trip to Armenia, the PACE president met with Armenian
President Serzh Sarksyan, with whom he discussed the reform process
and democratization in Armenia, the Armenian press reported. He also
reportedly met with Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan and
parliamentary groups. Extreme right-wing opposition Dashnaktsutyun
boycotted the meeting over Ã?avuÅ?oÄ?lu’s refusal to visit the `genocide’
memorial.
15 May 2010, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL