Monday, July 25, 2005
Geneva grills Turk over Armenian genocide remarks
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
ANKARA: Swiss authorities questioned the leader of a minor left-wing
Turkish party for saying that the killings of Armenians during World
War I could not be classified as genocide, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
Dogu Perincek, the chairman of the Workers’ Party (IP), was briefly
detained in the Swiss town of Winterthur where he was taking part in
activities marking the 82nd anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty, the
founding accord of modern-day Turkey, the agency said.
He was questioned by the city prosecutor for three-and-a-half hours
before being released.
Winterthur police spokesman Werner Benz was quoted by the agency as
telling reporters that Perincek was questioned for saying “the
Armenian genocide is an international lie,” a remark which was deemed
to be racist under Swiss law.
“This assertion contravenes anti-racism norms and constitutes a crime
under Swiss law,” a Zurich police official said.
Perincek already faces a complaint lodged in mid-July by the
Swiss-Armenian Association following a speech he gave in May, when he
said no genocide of Armenians ever took place.
Two months ago, the Turkish press reported that judicial authorities
in Winterthur had also launched an investigation against the head of
the Turkish History Foundation, Yusuf Halacoglu, for rejecting claims
that Armenians were the victims of genocide by Turks in a conference
in the Swiss town last year.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of Turkey.
Turkey categorically denies genocide claims and argues that 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks were killed in what it says was
civil strife during World War I when the Armenians, backed by Russia,
rose up against their Ottoman rulers.
Much to Ankara’s anger, the killings have already been deemed to be
genocide by a number of countries, including France, Canada and
Switzerland. –
AFP