Pan Armenian News

TURKISH LAWYER ACKNOWLEDGING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CAN BE IMPRISONED

06.06.2005 04:35

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish citizen and lawyer Madani Ayhan, Kurd in origin,
was called to criminal responsibility for stating that Turks implemented a
hostile policy towards the Armenians what resulted in the Armenian Genocide
in 1915, 525 Azeri newspaper reports. He is the first to be accused of
`propaganda’ of the Armenian Genocide that is why the event caused serious
resonance in Turkey. The majority of the Turkish population consider Ayhan’s
opinion to be `treason against Turkey and the whole Turk world.’ However
there are also supporters. To remind, not long ago well-known Turkish writer
Ohran Pamuk confirmed the fact of the Armenian Genocide arousing public
discontent by that. However he was not called to account. Turkish media
report that Ayhan is accused in accord with Article 312 of the Turkish
Criminal Code, which calls for imprisonment of individuals, who do deeds
conflicting with the interests and principles of the state. The prosecutor
claims three years of imprisonment for Ayhan, who also made statements
against the integrity of Turkey and supported the idea of formation of
Kurdish State. To note, M. Ayhan made a statement on the Armenian Genocide
during a formal event last November while the criminal case was initiated
this February. In his speech he called himself a citizen of Kurdistan. `I am
speaking on behalf of the Kurdish people and going to defend Kurds’ right of
formation a separate state’, he stressed. The representatives of the Turkish
Office of Prosecutor General stated that words of the kind are enough for
initiating a criminal case. According to Turkish media, besides calling
himself a citizen of Kurdistan Ayhan also acknowledges the Armenian Genocide
and says that the Armenian people, who struggled for Unification and
Prosperity befell carnages in Ottoman Turkey in 1915.’ `I bow down before
the beautiful and oppressed Armenian people and join them in their grief’,
Ayhan said. Today the Turkish citizen, who has become an enemy for Turkey,
will stand trial. He can be sentenced to three years of imprisonment.