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Boycott: Dashnaks Refuse To Meet PACE's Turkish Head After He Refuse

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  • Boycott: Dashnaks Refuse To Meet PACE's Turkish Head After He Refuse

    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.
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