BBC News

Turks to debate Armenian deaths

University scholars in Turkey plan to open a ground-breaking conference
this weekend on the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule.

They were prevented by a court order from holding the controversial
event at an Istanbul university on Friday but a new venue has been found
in the city.

Barring last-minute obstacles, the forum should now begin on Saturday.

Debate of the killings has been taboo in Turkey but it is under outside
pressure for greater freedom of speech.

The country begins talks on joining the EU in two weeks’ time and the
ban slapped on the forum’s chosen venue brought protests from Brussels.

Armenians worldwide have been campaigning for decades for the deaths,
thought to have been more than a million, to be recognised universally
as genocide.

An Istanbul court banned the conference from Bosphorus University after
complaints by nationalists that the historians behind it were “traitors”.

‘In the name of freedom’

But another university, Bilgi, has now opened its doors to the event.

“Our university decided to offer its halls for the conference in the
name of freedom of expression and thought,” said its president, Aydin Ugur.

The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul that Friday saw
emotionally charged scenes on the Bosphorus campus.

Students, angry the conference was cancelled, taped their mouths while
small groups of nationalists gathered to condemn plans for the forum.

The historians challenge official accounts of the killings, which give a
much smaller death toll and link Armenian losses to civil strife in
which many Turks also died.

Government leaders have regretted the court ruling which “cast a shadow
on the process of democratisation and freedoms”, according to Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“There are few nations that can inflict such damage upon themselves,”
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul added.

EU enlargement commissioner Krisztina Nagy said Brussels strongly
deplored the court’s “attempt to prevent the Turkish society from
discussing its history”.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2005/09/23 23:48:17 GMT

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress