Çavuşoğlu 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.Çavuşoğlu 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, Çavuşoğlu 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,” Çavuşoğlu 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 Çavuşoğlu’s refusal to visit the “genocide” memorial.
