Former British MP Receives Turkish Citizenship

Former British Member of Parliament, Robert Walter.

Robert Walter, a former British Member of Parliament, was given Turkish citizenship in a ceremony held at the Turkish Embassy in London on May 25.

A Turkish ID card was presented to Walter by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Daily Sabah tweeted a photo of the ceremony.

Last year, Walter was assigned by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) to launch a fact-finding mission in the Karabakh conflict zone and drafted a report titled “Escalation of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and Other Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan.”

The wording of this title has resulted in protests from the Armenian side, who call the PACE report “anti-Armenian.” Karabakh’s Presidential Spokesman David Babayan told Tert.am, “A report with such a title and contents is unacceptable. We have nothing to hide, and our opinion is that a report should reflect the reality.”

Furthermore, the Armenian side accused Walter of having close ties with the Azerbaijani government. When Walter led a team of PACE members on October 9, 2013, to observe the Azerbaijani presidential elections, his observation report stated that there was “a free, fair and transparent electoral process.” These findings were unlike others submitted by Western observers who reported widespread fraud.

According to Daily Sabah, Walter was delighted to receive the citizenship and gave a speech in Turkish at the ceremony saying he looks forward to spending time in Turkey with his wife Feride Alp, who is also a Turkish citizen.