FIRST TIME A TURKISH POLITICAL FIGURE DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS FOUND GUILTY IN SWITZERLAND

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.03.2007 GMT+04:00

Although the Armenian Genocide is not included by the International
Court in the official list of the crimes alike, it is a historical fact
and Perincek’s announcements are considered to be mere provocation.

The Swiss court found the Turkish militant leader Dogu Perincek guilty
of denying the Armenian genocide.

Turkish Workers’ Party leader Dogu Perincek received a suspended jail
sentence of 90 days or an equivalent fine from a Lausanne Court as
well as a fine of 3,000 Swiss francs (2,500 dollars). In case of one
more denial of the Armenian Genocide Perincek may be sent to prison.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ By the way, Perincek’s announcement, where he
called the Armenian Genocide "an international lie", may give ground
for other countries to condemn Perincek not only for racism, but for
slander as well, as the 18 countries which have officially recognized
the Armenian Genocide, can’t deny the truth. As for the references to
"the Armenian intrigues", in this case they simply do not work. And
although the Armenian Genocide is not included by the International
Court in the official list of the crimes alike, it is a historical fact
and Perincek’s announcements are considered to be mere provocation.

As the commentators state, the condemnation of the Turkish political
figure is the first case when the Switzerland’s anti-racism law has
been applied to the Armenian Genocide since 1995 when the law was
adopted in Switzerland. The most interesting thing is that the Turkish
Press "almost failed to notice" the verdict of the Lausanne Court. Only
Chihan News Agency gave some minor consideration to the case, and that
is with no commentary. A similar position is assumed by the "brotherly"
Azeri Press; however, if Ankara gives any response, the Azeri Press
will do the same. Most likely the campaign in Press will launch after
the consideration of the appeal, which Dogu Perincek is going to
file to the Strasbourg Court. Perincek says, "We will not give up,
and if needed, we will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights."

Let us remind that Turkey’s threats about appealing to the
International Court have lately become more and more frequent. Most
probably Turkey realizes that despite the Israeli and to some extent
the US support, Europeans will by all means adopt laws about the
denial of the Genocide, which are already administered in Holland
and Switzerland and soon will most probably be administered in France
as well.

Perhaps Ankara will start applying its old strategy; intimidation,
which this time will be applied against Switzerland. However,
things are a little different in this case. The number of the Turks
in Switzerland is not large; instead there are banks, where no
doubt many Turkish businessmen and political figures have personal
accounts, so it will do no good to Ankara to be in bad terms with
Switzerland. Moreover the leader of the party doesn’t enjoy supreme
authority in Turkey to have the support of the country. Perincek’s
party is too small and in addition is of radical nature, something
which Erdoghan doesn’t encourage at all.

However the incident raised a clamor which may be used for our own
benefit. The Turks themselves, though unintentionally raised the
issue of the Armenian Genocide making many people think over; maybe
the Armenians have indeed been slaughtered, otherwise Turkey wouldn’t
be so aggressive any time the word "genocide" is mentioned.

"PanARMENIAN.Net" analytical department