ARMENIAN ISSUE CONFERENCE STARTED IN ISTANBUL
Pan Armenian News
24.09.2005 06:52
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Two-day international conference titled “Ottoman
Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific
Responsibility and Democracy” started in the Bilgi University in
Istanbul September 24. The building is guarded by the police and strict
security measures have been undertaken. However several hundreds of
nationalists are holding a protest action in the neighborhood. “The
meeting is illegal. We will prevent it,” a representative of a Turkish
right wing party stated. To remind, the conference was scheduled for
September 23. However one of the Turkish courts has complied with
the suit of the Union of Lawyers and banned the meeting.
Earlier it was supposed to hold the conference in May but it was
delayed since Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek called the idea
“the dagger stuck into the back of the Turkish nation.” Some people
voiced opinion that Turkish historians are oppressed and deprived of
the possibility to express their scientific viewpoint. The majority
knows that the conference was barred over the possibility of discussion
of the Armenian Genocide issue.
Meanwhile Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned
the court resolution and called it incompatible with the norms of
democracy and civilized society. Spokesperson for the EU Commissioner
for Enlargement Krisztina Nagy characterized the court decision as a
“recurrent provocation”, IA Regnum reported.