Czech News Agency
May 27, 2008 Tuesday

SLOVAK MINISTER ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ON THE EVE TURK’S VISIT

Bratislava, May 27 (CTK) – Slovak Justice Minister Stefan Harabin
spoke about the Armenian genocide in the former Ottoman Empire on his
visit to Armenia, a mere one day ahead of a visit of Turkish Foreign
Minister Ali Babacan to Slovakia. Turkey has in the long run dismissed
having exposed Armenians on its territory to genocide during World War
One. Harabin spoke about the genocide with Armenian Patriarch Karekin
II who "…highly praised the activities of the Justice Minister who
proposes to punish denying any genocide, including the genocide of
Armenians," Harabin’s spokesman Michal Jurci told CTK.

The denying of the killings of Jews during World War Two is only
punishable in Slovakia now. The Justice Ministry has drafted an
amendment to the penal law that introduces punishments for denying
other genocides, including the Armenian. In Turkey, on the contrary,
hundreds of people have been punished for having labelled the
massacres of Armenians as genocide which is at variance with the
official opinion. The controversial law was only mitigated recently
within Turkey’s effort to join the European Union. Jurci said
Harabin’s trip to Armenia did not have any connection with the planned
visit by the Turkish minister to Slovakia. The Slovak Foreign Ministry
would not comment on Harabin’s visit. The ministry’s spokesman Jan
Skoda said Slovak diplomacy will not open the Armenian genocide in
talks with the Turkish Foreign Minister. He, nevertheless, recalled
that Slovak parliament passed in 2004 already a resolution that
describes the Armenian genocide as a crime against humanity. The
Turkish embassy in Bratislava would not comment on Harabin’s
statements in Armenia either. Can Onder, the embassy’s first
counsellor, told CTK, however, that the controversial periods of
history should be left to historians to deal with. The Turkish embassy
has for some time been trying to make Bratislava’s Petrzalka
neighbourhood remove a memorial to some 1.5 million Armenians who
became victim to the genocide. Ankara consistently dismisses the term
genocide and says the death of Armenians in 1915-17 was caused by war,
uprising and hunger. ms/mr/hol