PACE elections cause new tension between Turkey's gov't, opposition

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has argued that the opposition party representatives at PACE tried to block Çavuşoğlu’s election to the post.

“What a shame. They [the opposition] failed to be gentlemen congratulating or sharing this happiness,” Erdoğan said Tuesday during his address to his parliamentary group.

Çavuşoğlu, an Antalya deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was elected to the post last week, becoming the first Turkish president of PACE since its founding in 1949.

“Our brother Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was backed by more than 40 out of 47 member states, but Turkish opposition party members opted to hinder,” Erdoğan said. “What happened to your nationalism or loyalty to this country? Isn’t there a contradiction?”

Republican People’s Party, or CHP, deputy Birgen Keleş endorsed a motion to prevent Cavuşoğlu’s election and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP’s, Tuğrul Türkeş left the hall in order to not vote for him, Erdoğan claimed.

Türkeş reacted against the prime minister’s accusations and said that he “and all other MHP deputies voted in favor of Çavuşoğlu when he was proposed for the post last year.”

“I think Mr. Prime Minister was misinformed by his advisors,” Türkeş said.

/Hurriyet Daily News/