Agence France Presse — English
July 25, 2005 Monday 10:28 AM GMT
Turkish FM slams Swiss for detaining politician over Armenian remarks
ANKARA July 25
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Monday lashed out at
Switzerland for briefly detaining a Turkish politician who said that
massacres of Armenians during World War I did not amount to genocide.
“This treatment of the chairman of a Turkish political party is
unacceptable,” Gul said in an interview with the large circulation
daily Hurriyet, published Monday.
“Does this suit a country like Switzerland, which says it upholds
contemporary values? We were very saddened.”
Dogu Perincek, leader of the small left-wing Workers’ Party, was
questioned for more than three hours Saturday in the Swiss town of
Winterthur, where he was taking part in activities marking the 82nd
anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty, the founding accord of modern-day
Turkey.
Winterthur police spokesman Werner Benz said Saturday that Perincek
was questioned for saying “The Armenian genocide is an international
lie,” a remark deemed racist under Swiss law, the Anatolia news
agency reported.
“This assertion contravenes anti-racism norms and constitutes a crime
under Swiss law,” a Zurich police official said Sunday.
Perincek already faces a complaint lodged in mid-July by the
Swiss-Armenian Association following a speech he gave in May, when he
said no genocide of Armenians ever took place.
Two months ago, the Turkish press reported that judicial authorities
in Winterthur had also launched an investigation against the head of
the Turkish History Foundation, Yusuf Halacoglu, for rejecting at a
conference there last year claims that Armenians were the victims of
genocide by Turks.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of Turkey, was falling apart.
Turkey categorically denies genocide claims and says 300,000
Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil strife during World
War I when the Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against their
Ottoman rulers.
Much to Ankara’s anger, the killings have already been classified as
genocide by a number of countries including Canada, France and Switzerland.