TURKISH LAWYER SEEKS CHARGES AGAINST ARMENIAN RELIGIOUS LEADER
AP Worldstream
Jun 29, 2006
A nationalist lawyer said Thursday that he has petitioned prosecutors
to bring an Armenian religious leader to trial for "insulting
Turkishness."
Karekin II, whose official title is Catholicos of All Armenians, made a
visit to the Greek Orthodox leader in Istanbul last week. While calling
for improved relations between the two countries, he repeated Armenia’s
long-held view that the Turks committed genocide against Armenians.
"We can find positive solutions to the problems between us through
working side by side," he said. "The genocide, however, is one of
the issues standing between us."
Turkey vehemently denies that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks around the time of World War I was genocide, and several cases
have been brought against those who say otherwise. The cases have
been opened under a law making it a crime to "insult Turkishness."
Lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, who previously led a legal campaign against
novelist Orhan Pamuk, asked an Istanbul prosecutor to bring charges
against Karekin.
It was not clear if prosecutor would act against Karekin, who returned
to Armenia on Wednesday.
Pamuk went on trial after he said in a magazine interview that Turks
had killed 1 million Armenians, but the charges were later dropped.
Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killing in an organized genocidal campaign by Ottoman Turks, and have
pushed for recognition of the killings as genocide around the world.