Agence France Presse — English
August 24, 2005 Wednesday 12:30 PM GMT

Turkish intellectuals press ahead with Armenia conference branded as
‘treason’

ISTANBUL

A conference questioning the official line on massacres of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire, aborted after Turkey’s justice minister
branded it an act of treason, will go ahead in September, organisers
said on Wednesday.

The event baptised “Ottoman Armenians of an Empire in Decline” has
been scheduled for September 23-25 at Istanbul’s Bogazici university.

Featuring academics and intellectuals who dispute Ankara’s version of
the 1915-1917 killings, the conference was postponed in May after
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek condemned the initiative as “treason”
and a “stab in the back of the Turkish nation”.

He also said the organisers deserved to be prosecuted.

The outburst raised eyebrows in European diplomatic circles about
Ankara’s commitment to democratic reforms, a requirement for October
3 negotiations over its adhesion to the European Union.

But diplomats said the incident could also prove to be a watershed if
the Turkish government acted to correct Cicek’s remarks.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has now agreed to take part in
the conference’s opening session, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on
Wednesday.

“There was no reason to adjourn the conference. We can easily discuss
this question,” the newspaper quoted the minister as saying.

Ankara’s quest for European Union membership struck another hurdle
last month when it continued to insist it would not recognise the
Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus despite extending a customs
agreement to the 10 new EU members.

Several countries have recognised the Armenian massacres as genocide
and Brussels has called on Turkey to confront its past and to allow
greater freedom of speech.

Ankara recognises that the massacres took place, but strongly rejects
that they amounted to genocide.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered in
mass killings under the Ottoman Empire, forerunner to the Turkish
republic.

Ankara claims that 300,000 Armenians, who sided with Russian forces
against the Turks, were killed in the uprising and in deportations to
Syria. A similar number of Turks were also killed in the conflict,
according to the official version.