TURKS CAN BE TRIED FOR ARMENIA MASSACRE APOLOGY: COURT

Agence France Presse — English
March 2, 2009 Monday 5:13 PM GMT

A Turkish court ruled Monday that criminal proceedings could be
launched against the authors and signatories of a petition that
apologises to Armenians for 1915-1917 massacres under the Ottoman
Empire.

The decision by the court in Sincan, on the outskirts of Ankara,
repeals a January 26 ruling by the prosecutor general that bringing
charges would impinge on freedom of speech laws, the Anatolia news
agency said.

Criminal proceedings can now be launched against the organisers of
the Internet petition, which was launched on December 15, and the
subsequent 29,000 signatories, Turkish media reported.

The petition states that signatories regret "that we remain indifferent
to the Great Catastrophe that Ottoman Armenians endured… and that
we deny," and offers apologies.

Armenia and Turkey offer starkly different accounts of the events,
and the dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between the
two countries.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people died between 1915 and 1917 in
orchestrated killings as the Ottoman Empire fell apart. More than 20
countries have recognised the killings as genocide.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that between 300,000
and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and
sided with invading Russian troops.

The petition, which does not use the term "genocide" to describe the
massacres, has been signed by more than 29,000 people, among them
intellectuals and artists.

A probe was launched in January after several Ankara residents filed a
complaint asking for those involved with the petition to be punished
for "openly denigrating the Turkish nation", an offence that carries
two years in prison.

Belgium, Canada, Poland and Switzerland are among the countries to
have officially recognised the killings as genocide.

But many others, including Britain and the United States, refuse to
use the term to describe the events, mindful of relations with Turkey.

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia because
of its campaign to have the killings recognised as genocide.