Zaman, Turkey
April 3 2005
‘Europe Turns Back to Medieval Mentality’
By Erdal Sen, Anadolu News Agency (aa)
Published: Tuesday 03, 2005
zaman.com
Turkish Institute of History (TTK) President Professor Yusuf Halacoglu
evaluated the Swiss authority conducting an inquiry because of a
speech he made about the so-called Armenian genocide allegations as
reactive against Europe.
Stating that he found the conduction an inquiry regarding one of his
remarks undemocratic, Halacoglu interprets the situation that he faced
as Europe returning to medieval mentality. The TTK President revealed
that there is more democracy in Turkey than in European countries
and added he will not hesitate to continue to conduct conferences
in European countries. Halacoglu asks, “If I speak from Ankara, will
Europeans hear?” and expressed the Turkish public’s reaction to the
incident: “There are hundreds of people who called me on the telephone
and said ‘we will accompany you to prison.” The TTK President had
learned of the inquiry decision through newspaper reports. However,
he has not become disparaged. On the contrary, he believes that
the realities need to be voiced even louder. According to him, the
reason for conducting the inquiry is that he noted something that the
Europeans did not like. He revealed his views about the reactions
of the Swiss people: “This incident shows the medieval mentality
of Europe. I am a scientist and invite your scientist to talk. I
made a speech in Switzerland in May 2004. Now I am talking here, I
explained the same issues there as well and I will go on talking. I
will talk in other European countries if not Switzerland. Although
the non-existence of the genocide is proven by documents, we cannot
say the ‘genocide occurred”. Halacoglu also determined that he would
apply to the European Court of Human Rights.”
Switzerland: We conducted an inquiry into Halacoglu
Switzerland confirmed that they opened an inquiry into the TTK
President Halacoglu regarding his speech about the so-called Armenian
genocide. It was announced at the Swiss Embassy in Ankara that an
inquiry was being conducted into Halacoglu due to his speech on the
so-called Armenian genocide allegations that he made last spring. The
announcement indicated that the inquiry was conducted due to the
complaints of a third party to the local judicial authorities in
Winterthur rather than the direct application of the federal attorney.