AUSTRIAN TURKISH CANDIDATE STIGMATISED FOR GENOCIDE´DENIAL
AUSTRIA TODAY
October 23, 2006 Monday 7:36 PM (Central European Time)
A Turkish-origin candidate for a seat in the Austrian parliament
has been threatened since he denied the so-called Armenian genocide
in a statement in a newspaper in Vienna. Mustafa Iscel, candidate
for Austrian People´s Party (OeVP) in the general elections held on
October 1, said that he had been threatened by Armenian lobbies in
Austria and Germany after he told Austrian daily Die Presse that no
Armenian genocide existed.
Iscel also printed a flyer that read "Vote for us if you do not want
the Armenian bill passed" during the election campaign. "People from
both sides were killed in this historical event. Independent historians
are needed to clarify the issue and politicians should not be involved
in such issues," he told the newspaper. Iscel went on to say that
Armenians would threaten him till he resigned from his party, also
pressuring the OVP to remove him from the list of candidates. Late in
September, three Turkish candidates were expelled from their parties in
the Netherlands due to their refusal to accept the so-called Armenian
genocide, ahead of general elections to be held on November 22. The
Christian Democrat Appeal and Labor Party of the Netherlands removed
three Turkish-origin politicians from their lists of candidates to
run for a seat in the parliament after they refused to admit that
Turks committed genocide against Armenians during the World War I.
–Boundary_(ID_WdGBfuvB9k4f8FKW6dKWdw)–