TURKISH POLITICIAN TO STAND TRIAL IN SWITZERLAND FOR DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
AP Worldstream
Mar 05, 2007
A Turkish politician due to stand trial for allegedly breaking
Switzerland’s anti-racism laws said he will produce documents proving
that the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century were
"regrettable reciprocal massacres," but not genocide, according to
an interview published Monday.
Dogu Perincek, the leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party, said he had
obtained Russian documents proving the killings by Turks between 1915
and 1918 were the result of ethnic fighting that also claimed Turkish
victims, according to the interview in daily Le Matin.
The case will test whether it is a violation of Switzerland’s
anti-racism law to deny that the Turks committed genocide in the 1915
killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians.
The Swiss parliament’s lower house voted in 2003 to recognize the
slayings as genocide, but the resolution was nonbinding. Members of
the governing Cabinet have expressed concerns about the resolution’s
impact on relations with Turkey.
Perincek was charged with breaking the law after repeatedly denying
the genocide during a visit to Switzerland in 2005, and is due to
appear in a Lausanne court Tuesday.
He could face up to three years in prison and an unspecified fine
if convicted.
The law was "the result of deeply rooted anti-Turkish prejudice,"
Perincek said, according to Le Matin, adding that he hoped to end the
"witch hunt" against him. The law has also been applied to Holocaust
denial.
"Here (in Switzerland) stating your opinion is a punishable act,"
Perincek was quoted as saying.
Descendants of Armenians who survived and fled abroad have been
lobbying Western countries to label the killings genocide.
In January, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill
to this effect in Congress. The bill is opposed by the White House
out of concern it could damage relations with Turkey, a vital Muslim
ally and NATO member.
Last October, the French parliament passed a bill making it a crime
to deny the killings were genocide. The bill, which still requires
approval from the French Senate and President Jacques Chirac, stands
in direct contrast with a Turkish law that punishes those who use
the term genocide to describe the deaths.
Turkish groups in Switzerland are planning demonstrations in support
of Perincek, whose hearing in a police court is scheduled to last
two days. Any decision can appealed to the country’s supreme court.