Journal of Turkish Weekly
Oct 13 2006

Dutch Schools Pressure Turkish Students to Recognize Armenian Claims

Friday , 13 October 2006

After three Turkish candidates were expelled from their political
parties in the Netherlands for refusing to accept the Armenian
genocide allegations, the Dutch universities are pressuring Turkish
students to accept the Armenian genocide claims. The Turkis societies
consider the pressures as anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim campaign.

Arman Sag, a student at the Utrecht University department of
Turcology and a spokesman for Turkish students in the Netherlands,
said they were facing obstacles for rejecting the genocide.

Sag said they had been called neo-Nazis by their teachers, noting:

`Our education is being hindered here. There is freedom of thought. I
did my research and found that Armenians had not been subject to
genocide. This is my opinion and nobody can accuse me of this. We
will always support freedom of thought. We condemn anti-Turkish
prejudice. Such incidences attempt to invoke enmity against Turks.’

Law student Gamze Arikan called the move an attack on human rights,
while Tilburg University student Fatih Kulaksizoglu said: `We condemn
antidemocratic policies imposed on us. We will never recognize the
Armenian genocide.’

Another Turkish student, Guven Alkilic, expressed that the Turkish
community had been deeply disappointed by the dismissal of Turkish
candidates from their parties.

`By expelling Turkish candidates, Dutch political parties have not
only attacked Turkish society’s freedom of thought and expression but
also democracy. This move implies that they favor puppet MPs that
will approve whatever they say.’

More than 450.000 Turkish people live in the Netherlands and they
have almost no representative in the Dutch political system. The
decision to remove the Turkish names from the party lists increased
the mistrust among the Turkish people in Netherlands towards the
State and Duch institutions.