Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 9 2007
Turkish Party Leader Fined Because He did not Accept the Armenian
Claims
Friday , 09 March 2007
A Swiss district court has found a Turkish politician, Dogu Perincek,
guilty because he just expressed his ideas about the Armenian
historical claims. Mr. Perincek is a party leader in Turkey and, like
millions of Turks, does not accept the Armenian ‘genocide’
accusations.
The court in Lausanne agreed with the prosecutor’s demand and handed
Perincek a suspended fine of SFr9,000 ($7,336) as well as a one-off
financial penalty of SFr3,000.
The court also ruled that Perincek would have to pay SFr1,000 to the
Swiss-Armenian Association as a symbolic gesture.
The politician, whose left-wing Turkish Workers’ Party has no seats
in the Turkish parliament, was brought to court after calling the
genocide "an international lie" during a public speech in Lausanne in
July 2005.
TURKISH PROF.S HAVE TO ACCEPT WHAT ARMENIANS SAY IN SWITZERLAND
Swiss prosecutor Andrej Gnehm, who has opened up a case against the
President of the Turkish History Society, Professor Yusuf Halacoglu,
has said last year "Let him come and testify. If he doesn’t, the
moment Professor Halacoglu steps into Switzerland, we will arrest
him".
Though the Swiss Ambassador in Ankara, Walter Gyger, said that no
such arrest would be made, Prosecutor Gnehm has repeated the intent
to arrest Halacoglu if he should so much as set foot in Switzerland.
And Lausanne is the capital of canton Vaud, one of two Swiss cantons
along with Geneva where the parliaments have voted in recent years to
recognise the Armenian so-called genocide claims.
When the Armenians rioted against the Ottoman State and joined the
Russian occupying armies, the caos caused a civil war. As a result of
civil war and the war many Armenians, Kurds and Turks were killed.
More than 520.000 Turkish and Kurdish were massacred by the Armenian
nationalists during the First World War.