SWISS MINISTER WANTS TO LEGALISE GENOCIDE DENIERS
European Jewish Press, Belgium
Oct 23 2006
BERN (EJP)— Switzerland’s justice minister has called on the Swiss
government to reverse a law which makes historical revisionism illegal.
Minister Christoph Blocher is on a campaign to change the law,
according to the Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper – even if it
will impinge upon the sensitivities of minority groups, including
the country’s Jewish communities.
Blocher claims that freedom of expression is more important than
protecting the sensibilities of minority groups, NZZ wrote.
Blocher just returned from a trip to Turkey where a public discussion
of the Armenian genocide is de facto punishable by a court of law.
Upon his return home, Blocher said that he believes that Swiss laws
needs to be a beacon for other nations.
As far as the minister is concerned, a ban on free speech in Turkey
has made an effective public discussion of the Armenian genocide and
Kurdish issues there impossible. In effect, he claims that widening
the possibilities for freedom of speech in Switzerland might entice
other countries to do the same.
International relations
The minister, however, is also disgruntled because he claims that
such a law is an impediment on Switzerland’s relationship to other
countries.
Article 261 of the Swiss criminal code punishes genocide-denial.
Currently, anybody is punishable in Switzerland if they "deny,
belittle, or relativise genocide or crimes against humanity,"
NZZ wrote.
Because of this law, Swiss lawmakers who travel abroad are required
to discuss this topic with their counterparts in those countries
which have been accused, by the global community, of genocide.
Blocher’s trip to Turkey is a case in point. He believes that his
having been required to bring up the topic of the Ottoman Empire’s
Armenian genocide with his Turkish colleagues will have created
unnecessary friction during his meetings in the Eurasian nation.
However, the minister’s failure to guarantee that two Kurdish
activists, held in Switzerland would be extradited to Turkey has also
put a damper on Swiss-Turkish relations, in recent years.
Holocaust denial
The minister is apparently very much aware that a change in the law
will only entice Holocaust deniers to question the existence of gas
chambers as well. "I do not want that an opinion cannot be uttered
only because someone will be offended by it," the minister said.
According to the minister, the definition of genocide needs to be
decided by historians. "A debate on the subject, however, will have
no basis if diverse opinions are banned," he said.
According to NZZ, the minister made this very point to his Turkish
colleague, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek. In response, Cicek told
Blocher that Turkey would allow an international historian commission
to research the topic of the Armenian genocide and Kurdish matters.
The Turkish government had already announced its intention to form
a commission in the past. However, no commission has been set up,
to-date. Armenia and Turkey do not hold diplomatic relations. The
Armenians fear that a Turkish commission would be mostly composed of
revisionist minded historians, NZZ writes.
Although several of Blocher’s meetings were strained by the talk of
the Armenian genocide, the minister does believe that his meetings
have "created a giant step towards an improvement" in Switzerland’s
diplomatic relationship to Turkey.
The reason for the two nations’ extremely strained relationship is
Switzerland’s blocking of a Turkish request for the extradition of two
activists of the banned Kurdish Communist Party. The Kurds (Turkish
citizens) are protected under Swiss law because their extradition to
Turkey, which has historically curbed Kurdish freedom of expression,
is contradictory to Swiss law – something that Blocher would like to
see changed.
During his trip to Ankara, Blocher did say that he would make
every effort to have the Swiss legal code changed in order to make
an extradition easier. In other words, he hopes that the Turkish
government would eventually follow suit and allow the Kurdish political
opposition the opportunity to speak its mind, publicly.
However, the extradition will certainly not happen anytime
soon – because not only would Swiss codes need to be changed,
via parliamentary propositions and a general referendum. However,
Turkish laws would also need to be amended.
Most political parties have shown their dismay at Blocher’s proposal
– in particular because the Swiss law only went into effect in 1994
after years of debate and compromise.
The Swiss Ombudsman against Racism, Georg Kreis, told NZZ that
Blocher’s statements would make everyone believe that the law
places sole attention on the Armenian genocide. Kreis went further
to criticise Blocher’s promise to his Turkish colleagues in regards
to the Kurdish Communist Party.
Blocher’s visited Turkey in order to commemorate the 80th anniversary
of the Eurasian country’s civil code which was modelled after that
of Switzerland.