TURKEY PROBES APOLOGY FOR ARMENIAN DEATHS

Peninsula On-line
Jan 10 2009
Qatar

ANKARA: A Turkish prosecutor yesterday launched an investigation into
an Internet petition that apologises to Armenians for the World War
I massacres of their kinsmen, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The probe was launched after several Ankara residents filed a complaint
asking for the organisers and signatories to be punished for "openly
denigrating the Turkish nation", an offence that carries two years
in prison, the report said.

Should the prosecutor decide to bring formal charges at the end of the
investigation, he will have to seek approval from the justice minister.

The petition, drafted by a group of university professors and
put online on December 15, states that the signatory "does not
accept… the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman
Armenians were subjected to in 1915." It ends with an offer of
apologies.

By 1300 GMT yesterday, nearly 27,000 people — among them intellectuals
and artists — had signed the text.

Although the petition did not use the term "genocide" in a bid
to prevent legal complications, it was nonetheless slammed by
politicians, diplomats and even Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
whose government is trying to normalise relations with Armenia.