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Davutoglu Appoints Foreign Minister with Proven Anti-Armenian Track Record
August 29, 2014
Turkey's new foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu
ANKARA--Turkey's newly appointed Prime Minister and former foreign minister
Ahmet Davutoglu announced a new cabinet on Thursday, which appears to be
largely unchanged and strictly loyal to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country's
decade-long leader recently voted to become President.
Most noteworthy among the appointments, Turkey's new foreign minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the country's former Europe Minister, whose most infamous
deed was reintroducing a bogus subcommittee
on
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) during Turkey's chairmanship of the Council of Europe in
2011.
The head of Armenia's parliamentary delegation at the PACE, Davit
Harutiunian, accused the Strasbourg-based assembly and its then-president
Cavusoglu of anti-Armenian bias. "The assembly has disgraced itself with
such an overtly biased approach," he said.
The move was seen largely as a ploy by Turkey -- Azerbaijan's closest ally --
to draft an "anti-Armenian" resolution on the Karabakh conflict, as another
Armenian PACE delegate, Naira Zohrabian, explained.
A year after his boondoggle at the PACE, Cavusoglu set his sights on
Armenia's international partners who dared to take a moral stand on
Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide. Cavusoglu, who was at the time
the leader of Erdogan's ruling AK party, said in 2012
that
French President Francois Hollande was "more dangerous that Sarkozy" when
it came to the issue of criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
The remarks came when President Hollande reached out to the French-Armenian
community and reiterated his campaign pledge to shepherd a law that would
criminalize the Armenian Genocide.
Cavusoglu has also kept in line with Turkey's thoroughly destabilizing
foreign policy agenda regarding all of its neighbors. When the European
Court of Human Rights ordered Turkey to pay a fine
to
Cyprus for its invasion of the country, Cavusoglu readily echoed
Davutoglu's objections and vows to ignore the ruling while representing
Turkey in Europe.
But Cavusoglu is still somehow a figure seen as reassuring for the United
States and the European Union. According to Agence France-Presse, many
expect Cavusoglu to rebalance Turkish foreign policy which was condemned
for over-ambition under Davutoglu. An unrealistic expectation if there ever
was one.
Newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus put it succinctly
when he admitted, "The focus of the government has not changed. It is just
a partial modification."
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/47671
August 29, 2014
Turkey's new foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu
ANKARA--Turkey's newly appointed Prime Minister and former foreign minister
Ahmet Davutoglu announced a new cabinet on Thursday, which appears to be
largely unchanged and strictly loyal to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country's
decade-long leader recently voted to become President.
Most noteworthy among the appointments, Turkey's new foreign minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the country's former Europe Minister, whose most infamous
deed was reintroducing a bogus subcommittee
on
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) during Turkey's chairmanship of the Council of Europe in
2011.
The head of Armenia's parliamentary delegation at the PACE, Davit
Harutiunian, accused the Strasbourg-based assembly and its then-president
Cavusoglu of anti-Armenian bias. "The assembly has disgraced itself with
such an overtly biased approach," he said.
The move was seen largely as a ploy by Turkey -- Azerbaijan's closest ally --
to draft an "anti-Armenian" resolution on the Karabakh conflict, as another
Armenian PACE delegate, Naira Zohrabian, explained.
A year after his boondoggle at the PACE, Cavusoglu set his sights on
Armenia's international partners who dared to take a moral stand on
Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide. Cavusoglu, who was at the time
the leader of Erdogan's ruling AK party, said in 2012
that
French President Francois Hollande was "more dangerous that Sarkozy" when
it came to the issue of criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.
The remarks came when President Hollande reached out to the French-Armenian
community and reiterated his campaign pledge to shepherd a law that would
criminalize the Armenian Genocide.
Cavusoglu has also kept in line with Turkey's thoroughly destabilizing
foreign policy agenda regarding all of its neighbors. When the European
Court of Human Rights ordered Turkey to pay a fine
to
Cyprus for its invasion of the country, Cavusoglu readily echoed
Davutoglu's objections and vows to ignore the ruling while representing
Turkey in Europe.
But Cavusoglu is still somehow a figure seen as reassuring for the United
States and the European Union. According to Agence France-Presse, many
expect Cavusoglu to rebalance Turkish foreign policy which was condemned
for over-ambition under Davutoglu. An unrealistic expectation if there ever
was one.
Newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus put it succinctly
when he admitted, "The focus of the government has not changed. It is just
a partial modification."
http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/47671