The PACE Secretariat`s official answer to the Armenian delegation says that PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu himself moved the names of the Armenian delegation members toward the bottom of the list of the PACE MPs wishing to address questions to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan.
On April 13, the Armenian delegation to PACE asked the PACE Secretariat for explanations. The Armenian delegation member Naira Zohrabyan informed Armenian News-NEWS.am that the answer was received on Wednesday evening.
The PACE Secretariat actually confirmed that it was Mevlut Cavusoglu`s personal decision. They referred to a point in the PACE Rules allowing the PACE President to establish the priority of the list in case PACE hosts a guest. In this particular case it was the Turkish premier, Zohrabyan said.
"They refer to the Rules, but I cannot recall a precedent of any of the PACE presidents exercising this right. Politically, I consider it a disgrace. The only thing it proves is that Mevlut Cavusoglu is not a person committed to PACE values. Rather, he is a Turkish official who exercised the rights granted by the Rules only to protect the Turkish premier from the Armenian MPs` `undesirable` questions," Zohrabyan said.
The issue must be raised at the PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs.
"If Mevlut Cavusoglu exercised the right granted by the relevant point of the Rules and made changes in the list of MPs, he should have at least admitted a clash of interests. That is he wanted to create hothouse conditions for the Turkish Premier lest any `unexpected` question might be asked. But despite all his efforts, Cavusoglu failed," Zohrabyan said.
