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.