On Oct. 25, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appointed an unexpected name as his “top adviser” in political matters: Etyen Mahcupyan, a prominent public intellectual of Armenian descent.

This was widely seen as a wise decision, because Mahcupyan, with his newspaper column and regular TV appearances, has been one of the most sophisticated defenders of the Justice and Development (AKP) government in the midst of many crude attempts. The inclusion of an Armenian voice in the top echelons of the Turkish government was also seen as a prudent decision on the eve of the centennial of the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Anatolia in 1915.

Etyen Mahcupyan is one of the renowned “secular liberals” who supported the AKP government against the secular Kemalist establishment in the first decade of this century. (He always refused the term “liberal,” though, and declared himself a “democrat.”) Many of those liberals gradually became disappointed with what they saw as the AKP’s authoritarian turn, and increasingly turned into critics, if not outright opponents, in the last few years. However, Mahcupyan kept his support for the AKP solid. During the confrontation between the AKP and the Gulen movement, which was the definitive matter throughout 2014, Mahcupyan solidly supported the AKP, despite the fact that he was then a columnist for Zaman, the flagship paper of the Gulen movement. No wonder he resigned from Zaman in June and moved on to Aksam, one of the several pro-AKP newspapers.

However, the very sophistication of Mahcupyan soon proved a bit too much for some AKP folks. Mahcupyan appeared on a TV show on CNNTurk Nov. 25, and answered some tough questions about the government. When asked about corruption, he replied: “Corruption is not totally baloney.”