Azerbaijani reaction to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Gümrükçü in the commission: 'I was declared persona non grata, you did not speak out'

At the meeting where the Mecca Agreement was discussed at the Turkish Grand National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, two MPs brought up the recent problems with Azerbaijan and the detentions and statement-taking processes originating from Azerbaijan. He asked questions to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Levent Gümrükçü on this issue.

WAS THE BAKU AMBASSADOR SUMMONED TO THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS?

CHP Kahramanmaraş Deputy Ali Öztunç said, "There have been problems between Turkey and Azerbaijan for a while. What kind of work has our Ministry of Foreign Affairs done in this process? In the contacts made by our Azerbaijani counterparts with us, I was in Serbia for the elections at the weekend, they express their discomfort. I wonder if our ambassador was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baku, officially, of course, not in the sense of a note, but unofficially?" he said. Gumrukcu, on the other hand, made a statement as follows: "No, there has been no such call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our Baku Ambassador in recent days. Of course, his daily work as our ambassador in Baku continues."

'Persona non grata' REACTION FROM GERGERLİOĞLU

Later, DEM Party Kocaeli Deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu spoke about the process in which he was involved. Gergerlioğlu and 30 Turkish citizens were declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan on various charges, including "a call to change the constitutional order by force". Gergerlioğlu said, "After our criticisms regarding the headscarf ban within the limits of freedom of expression, the Aliyev administration imposed a ban on my entry to Azerbaijan. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no statement on this issue. I see this as a great misfortune. I am a member of this Parliament. I am the constitutional representative of 86 million people. I was elected by the votes of the people and I am facing such a disrespectful attitude. Not only me, but also our deputy Mr. Fatih Erbakan and many Turkish citizens are facing such disrespect. "However, neither the Presidency of the Turkish Grand National Assembly nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a statement. I have a hard time understanding this. You need to say something, I am not an appointed person of this country, I am an elected one."

'WE ARE MEETING BILATERAL'

Gümrükçü said, "As you know, we are five deputy ministers and my field of duty is international security and a few other issues. Bilateral relations with Azerbaijan are not my field of duty, but by checking again with my friends, we are discussing with the Azerbaijani authorities all the issues that have recently come to the fore between Turkey and Azerbaijan, including the issue you mentioned. We have a very special relationship with Azerbaijan and we have the opportunity to discuss some issues at the bilateral level. And in this context, a family, you know, 'One nation' "As you know, the concept of 'two states' has been put forward. We continue to discuss these issues with the idea that it would be a better method to discuss some issues at the bilateral level among the relevant authorities, without discussing them publicly. At this stage, I can only tell you this," he said.