Ethnic Armenian Journalist Etienne Mahchoupyan Elected to Davutoglu's Established Party Executive Council

On December 19, a session of the founding council of the 'Future' (Gelecek) party, recently established by former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, took place. During this meeting, members of the party's executive council, as well as ethics and disciplinary committees, were elected.

As a result of voting among the 132 participants, the former Prime Minister was unanimously elected as the president of the Future party. Among the 60 members of the executive council is also ethnic Armenian journalist and publicist Etienne Mahchoupyan.

Mahchoupyan was appointed as the Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister during Ahmet Davutoglu's tenure. However, in April 2015, Mahchoupyan was dismissed from his position. He indicated that his dismissal was due to the imposition of a 'age limit' restriction. However, numerous Turkish media outlets have interpreted the circumstances surrounding Mahchoupyan's dismissal as a consequence of his open discussions regarding the reality of the Armenian Genocide.