RPT-Turkey condemns court stopping Armenia conference

Fri 23 Sep 2005 4:56 AM ET
Reuters
By Jon Hemming

ISTANBUL, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Turkey's government condemned a court decision to stop a conference to discuss the massacre of Armenians during World War One, calling it a blow to freedom of speech and a mistake ahead of EU-accession talks on Oct. 3.
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"Those inside and outside the country who want to obstruct us as we go towards Oct. 3 are making their last efforts," said Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. "There is no one better than us when it comes to harming ourselves," he added.

Late on Thursday, the court stopped the conference pending information from the two universities which organised it on the academic careers of the speakers, who was participating and who was paying for it.

"It was cancelled because they did not know who was going to say what," the Sabah daily said.

The European Commission was not impressed.

"The absence of legal motivations and the (timing) of this decision a day before the conference looks like yet another provocation," said Krisztina Nagy, the EU executive's spokeswoman for enlargement, on Friday.

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn previously called a Turkish court's plans to prosecute novelist Orhan Pamuk a provocation. Pamuk faces up to three years in jail for backing allegations that Armenians suffered genocide 90 years ago.

The Armenian conference had been postponed in May after a minister accused its organisers of treason.
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