Swiss minister’s visit to Turkey called off over genocide denial

Agence France Presse — English
August 5, 2005 Friday 3:50 PM GMT

BERN July 31 — A planned visit to Turkey in September by Swiss
Economy Minister Joseph Deiss has been called off by Ankara, a ministry
spokesman said Friday.

The cancellation followed a row caused by Switzerland’s decision to
investigate a Turkish politician for allegedly denying that Aremnians
were the victims of Turkish genocide.

Although Deiss had nothing directly to do with the row, his trip was
cancelled because of a calendar conflict, said spokesman Christophe
Hans.

Swiss police last month briefly detained Dogu Perincek, leader of
the small leftist Turkish Workers Party, for saying that Turkish
massacres of Armenians during World War I did no amount to genocide.

Perincek’s remarks, made in an interview with a Swiss newspaper,
fell foul of the country’s anti-racism laws, which ban any denial of
genocidal killing.

The Swiss federal parliament has accepted that the slaughter of
the Armenians was an act of genocide, but the Turkish government
strenuously denies this, saying that 300,000 Armenians and as many
Turks were killed in a civil war when the Armenians rose up against
the Ottoman empire.

Perincek made matters by calling the genocide claim “an international
lie” and calling the anti-racism laws tantamount to “medieval
inquisition.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said it was “unacceptable”
to detain and question Perincek.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress