Turkish party leader released after Armenian genocide remarks in Swiss

Anatolia news agency, Ankara
24 Jul 05

Winterthur, 24 July: Labour Party (IP) leader Dogu Perincek was
detained on Saturday [23 July] in Wintherthur city of Switzerland,
where he attended a panel discussion held to mark the 82nd anniversary
of the Lausanne Treaty.

Speaking to Turkish reporters, Wintherthur police spokesman Werner
Benz said that Perincek was detained and interrogated for saying
“Armenian genocide is an international lie”.

Perincek was released after being interrogated for more than three
hours.

After he was freed, Perincek told Turkish reporters that he insisted
on his views that “Armenian genocide is a lie” during his
interrogation.

According to sources, Perincek’s interrogation was concluded in 15
minutes, but it lasted for more than three hours because Perincek
wanted Swiss authorities to include his statements about “1915
incidents and the so-called Armenian genocide allegations of some
foreign powers” in his text of testimony.

Perincek added: “I was detained for a press conference I held in
Zurich” and noted that he told prosecutor Jaeger during the
interrogation that parliaments could not make decisions on historical
incidents. I also said that an impartial country like Switzerland,
which has not joined any conspiracies against Turkey, cannot pass such
a law because it is against its own constitution. And, these words
were included in the text of my testimony.”