During the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Armenian MP Vladimir Vardanyan called out Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for showing the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves sign to Armenian protesters in Montevideo, Uruguay.
“Yesterday on April 24 Armenians all over the World were commemorating the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide organized and perpetrated by the Ottoman authorities in such cruel and inhuman manner that the international community was obliged to invent a new term for qualification of such international outrages – crimes against humanity,” Vardanyan said.
“Despite the fact that the consequences of the Armenian genocide are still echoing within all the Armenian community and despite the fact that even today 107 years later this issue is still quite sensitive for all of us, the Republic of Armenia from the very beginning of its independence has declared its policy of normalization of relations with Turkey without any precondition. We are consecutively following this path and reiterating our willingness to normalize bilateral relations. But are our counterparts as sincere in this process as we are?” the MP added.
The Armenian delegate then showed the sign of Grey Wolves, a radical terrorist organization responsible for a series of terrorist attacks and other crimes committed against Armenians, Kurds, other minorities, an organization which is allegedly connected to the assassination attempt of John Paul II, the Pope and so on.
” I am showing this to you because just two days ago Mr. Mavlut Chavusoglu, the incumbent Turkish Foreign Minister has shown this to the participants of the peaceful demonstration in Uruguay demanding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. It is strange that a high level European diplomat and politician promotes such a sign. It becomes even more unacceptable when it is done by a former President of the Parliamentary Assembly, a person who here in this hemicycle spoke about democracy, human rights and rule of law. The person whom all of us gave support and right to represent us all and disseminate ideas of the Council of Europe and protect the European values allows himself to promote such a radical symbol,” Vladimir Vardanyan stated.
He mentioned that this kind of actions endanger the possible confidence building process among the two societies.
“Here I would like to once again state clearly that we in Armenia are very devoted to the European values and we are continuing to do our best to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations expressing hope that our Turkish counterparts will have enough will to open the mutual border and establish normal relations with Armenia and contribute to the de-escalation and building of sustainable peace in our region,” the MP stressed.
