December 13, 2019 - 15:13 AMT
Turkish-Armenian writer among Davutoglu party co-founders

Former premier of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu launched a new party on Friday, December 13, Ermenihaber.am reports.

Interestingly, Turkish journalist, writer and columnist of Armenian descent Etyen Mahçupyan is among the 154 co-founders of the Future Party ("Gelecek Partisi" in Turkish).

Davutoglu served as prime minister between 2014 to 2016 and chairman of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party. In his opening remarks, though, he said the new party would stand against "cult of the leader" politics/

In October 2014, Mahçupyan was appointed as the senior advisor to then Prime Minister Davutoglu. It was the first time in Modern Turkish history that a minority of Armenian descent was appointed to such a critical position. He technically retired from this position in March 2015. The announcement came a day after he openly acknowledged the Armenian Genocide. However he stated that his departure had nothing to do with the row. He said he retired in March due to the mandatory retirement age for civil servants, and has kept advising Davutoglu afterwards informally.