GENOCIDE DENIAL TRIAL RAISES MANY QUESTIONS
Swissinfo, Switzerland
March 5 2007
The trial of Turkish politician Doðu Perincek, who made comments in
Switzerland denying the 1915 Armenian massacre was genocide, opens
in Lausanne on Tuesday.
The court case, which is centred on Swiss anti-racism legislation,
is set to test the already shaky relations between Bern and Ankara.
A meeting between Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher – an
opponent of the law – and his Turkish counterpart Cemil Cicek in Bern
at the weekend has also raised eyebrows.
Perincek, the head of the Turkish Workers’ Party, stands accused of
racial discrimination after he called the genocide "an international
lie" during a public speech in the city of Lausanne in July 2005.
Under the Swiss penal code any act of denying, belittling or justifying
genocide is a violation of the country’s anti-racism legislation.
Armenians maintain the mass killings in 1915 were genocide, a charge
Turkey disputes.
Experts say the presiding judge at the district court in Lausanne
will have to negotiate some tricky waters concerning both the law
and Swiss-Turkish relations.
Tensions between Bern and Ankara were high in 2005 after Turkey
criticised the Swiss authorities’ decision to investigate Perincek.
It also later cancelled an official trip to Turkey by the then
economics minister, Joseph Deiss.
Law debate
The law itself has been the subject of debate after Blocher announced
during a visit to Turkey last October that the legislation was
incompatible with freedom of expression.
The comments were welcomed by Ankara but caused a storm of protest
in Switzerland.
Blocher has again come in for criticism by the media and some
politicians over the timing of the meeting with his Turkish counterpart
at the weekend. According to the justice ministry bilateral issues –
and not the trial – were discussed.
Legal experts have also raised questions about the law – albeit in
a different context.
"The lawmakers wanted to assimilate the negation of a historical
reality to a racist proclamation. This is controversial, because it
is about two different things," said Robert Roth, dean of the faculty
of law at Geneva University.
Roth believes, however, the central question of the trial will be
another one – who should make a judgement on historical events?
Perincek during his speech in Lausanne (Keystone)
Genocide or massacre?
The Armenians say Ottoman Turks slaughtered up to 1.8 million Armenians
in a planned genocide between 1915 and 1918. Turkey denies the mass
killings were genocide, saying the death toll is inflated.
So far most historians, the Council of Europe, the French parliament
and the Swiss House of Representatives – plus two cantonal parliaments
in Switzerland – have all recognised the events as genocide. The
Swiss government does not officially speak of genocide.
Francesco Bertossa, who was part of the defence team in another Turkish
genocide denial trial in 2001in Bern, believes the definition question
should not influence the verdict.
"The anti-racism law does not only punish genocide denial but also
any crime against humanity," he said.
Swiss-Armenians
For its part, the Swiss-Armenian Association, the private party
associated with the public prosecutor in the trial, welcomes the case.
"We will finally know if denigrating our people and tarnishing our
memory is a crime in Switzerland," said co-president Sarkis Shahinian.
Prosecutor-general Eric Cottier has been quoted as saying that
unless shown to be otherwise, the Armenian genocide was "sufficiently
recognised to be defined as such".
But Perincek remains defiant. Arriving in Switzerland at the weekend
he reiterated his call for the law to be abolished and said he could
prove that genocide did not take place.
A verdict in the trial is expected on Friday.
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