Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 23 2005

Suspension Of Academic Conference On Armenian Issue

ISTANBUL – Several groups held demonstrations in front of Istanbul’s
Bogazici University on Friday to protest an academic conference on
the Armenian issue which was suspended by the court.
Members of the Culture & Ethics Association hang photographs of women
and children who were killed by Armenian gangs during the World War I
on fences surrounding the university campus.

Meanwhile, members of the National Power Platform held another
protest to support decision of the court.

Kemal Kerincsiz, chairman of the Platform and a member of the
Executive Board of the Lawyers’ Association, said, ”yesterday, the
Armenian issue was debated at the European Parliament and a
parliamentarian said, ‘they (Turkish authorities) gave us a promise.
How could they suspend the conference now?’ Now we want to know who
has given those promises? Was it the prime minister or the foreign
minister? We expect Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to make a
statement.”

”The conference is not scientific at all. It aims to explain biased
views of the Armenian diaspora,” he said.

Kerincsiz kept on saying, ”Turkish nation has the most honorable and
cleanest history of the world. There is nothing to be ashamed of in
our history including relocation of Armenians in 1915 due to security
reasons. Turkey has already opened its archives to researches.
According to documents in those archives, 527 thousand Turkish people
were massacred by Armenian gangs.”

Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the Patriotic Movement, Bedri
Baykam, a prominent Turkish painter, said, ”some circles wanted to
organize this conference with extremely biased, antidemocratic and
misleading mentality.”

In another part of Istanbul, members of the Association of Retired
Officers held a demonstration to protest the conference.

Riza Kucukoglu, chairman of the Association said, ”we respect
decision of the court. We believe that the Bogazici University was
saved from an Armenian occupation after the decision of the court.”

A court in Istanbul ordered the suspension of the academic conference
on ”Armenians in the Late Ottoman Empire: Scientific Responsibility
and Democracy Problems”. The conference was originally scheduled for
May but was postponed as a result of severe criticisms. The case to
cancel the conference was brought by lawyers who are members of the
Foundation of Turkish Lawyers’ Union.