Hürriyetim
28.09.2005
Lawyers won’t drop the Armenian conference: new court case opened
Following the closure of the controversial two day Armenian conference at
Istanbul’s Bilgi University, a group of lawyers from the Lawyers’ Union in
Istanbul has opened a court case against 17 individuals they claim went
against the earlier ruling of an Istanbul court that the conference could
not proceed. The conference, titled “Ottoman Armenians During the Collapse
of the Empire,” had been originally scheduled for May of this year, and was
postponed following outcry over what was perceived as its pro-Armenian
agenda.
The rescheduled conference was then blocked by a last minute court order
brought about by a group of lawyers from Istanbul’s Lawyers’ Union. The
conference, forbidden from taking place at Bosphorus University, was then
transferred to Istanbul’s Bilgi University. The same group of lawyers from
the Lawyers’ Union filed for their case at Beyoglu’s Turkish Republic
Prosecutor’s offices yesterday. Among the 17 people listed in their file as
defying court orders are the rectors of Bosphorus, Sabanci, and Bilgi
universities, as well as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul.