Etyen Mahcupyan “Retires” as Advisor to Turkish Prime Minister

Etyen Mahcupyan.

Apparently declaring that the mass slaughter of the Armenian nation is genocide leads to retirement. At least that appears to be the case with Etyen Mahcupyan, senior advisor to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

According to AFP, the government of Turkey denied any link between the retirement of Mahcupyan and statements he made in an interview where he said, “If accepting that what happened in Bosnia and Africa were genocides, it is impossible not to call what happened to Armenians in 1915 genocide too.”

His statement angered some within the ruling Justice and Development Party. Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir, during a live television show said, "Naturally, those views were not suitable for a Turkish citizen. Maybe he will himself make a re-evaluation.”

On April 12, when Pope Francis led a Holy Mass for the faithful of the Armenian Rite on the occasion of the centenary, he said that the slaughter of the Armenian people during the first world war was genocide. This led to an angry response and threats from Ankara. With regard to that historic event, Mahcupyan said that the Vatican had finally released a “100-year-old psychological burden” and going further said that what also needed to be addressed was the 100-year resistance to that term.

Mahcupyan’s appointment on October 25, 2014 was significant. For the first time since the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic, a non-Turkish and non-Muslim was appointed to a high profile position within the executive.