Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu unleashed a national and international scandal in Uruguay after being recorded making a gesture related to a Turkish ultra-nationalist group to a group of Armenian protesters protesting his visit.
The reprehensible episode occurred at the start of the inauguration of the Turkish Embassy in Uruguay, in the Matriz Square in Montevideo, when Çavuşoğlu, who held a meeting last Saturday with his Uruguayan counterpart, Francisco Bustillo, passed his official vehicle in front of the activists.
As can be seen in the video released by the Armenian Council group of Uruguay, the Turkish Foreign Minister made the signal of the ultra-right and ultra-nationalist Turkish organization the Grey Wolves with his hand.
This paramilitary organization denies the existence of the Armenian genocide and was banned in 2020 by European countries such as Austria and France following attacks by its members against the local Armenian community.
The Grey Wolves emerged in the 1960s and from 2016 they became one of the main supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The movement targets Armenians, separatist Kurds, left-wing militants and human rights defenders, and has been behind numerous attacks. In fact, one of the members of the group tried to attack Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in 1981.
Çavuşoğlu's reprehensible gesture in Montevideo came when the Armenian collective protested against the “provocation” that the visit took place just the day before the day that marks the 107th anniversary of the start of the genocide.
Perpetrated in 1915 by Ottoman troops, the genocide of the Armenians is commemorated on April 24, the date of the first arrests of Armenian intellectuals, considered to be the beginning of these massacres.
After the scandal, Bustillo - who will be the keynote speaker on behalf of the Uruguayan Executive Branch this Sunday in an act to commemorate the genocide - decided to convene Turkey's ambassador to Uruguay, Hüseyin Müftüoğlu on Monday.
Çavuşoğlu not only offended Uruguayan Armenians but the whole nation, since the first country in the world to recognize the Armenian genocide was precisely Uruguay in 1965.
The Armenian Genocide is recognized by about thirty countries and by the historical community. According to estimates, between 1.2 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the First World War by the troops of the Ottoman Empire, then allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary. Last year, at another historic milestone, Joe Biden became the first US president in office to describe the events of 1915 as “genocide”. Today, in fact, the American commemorated the tragedy again.
Kick-off for a Free Trade Agreement
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Uruguay signed yesterday the kick-off to negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The signing of the terms of reference that kick off the negotiation process, announced by Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou, last December, took place as part of the controversial first official visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister to the South American country.
Turkey was the tenth destination of Uruguayan exports in 2021, with 212 million.
Çavuşoğlu was received by Bustillo at the central Santos Palace, headquarters of the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry, and, according to the portfolio in a statement, the ministers “held a working meeting held in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect, during which the state of bilateral relations was reviewed.” But now, after Çavuşoğlu's reprehensible gesture as he left the meeting, his ambassador will have to give explanations.
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