Swiss convict Turk of denying Armenian genocide

09 Mar 2007
AlertNet
Source: Reuters

The article below says "Twelve Turks were acquitted of similar charges in 2001". I think the difference this time is that Perincek, submitted 90 kg (200 lb) of historical documents, arguing that there had been no genocide against Armenians, but there had been "reciprocal massacres", so the court became more knowledgeable, thanks to Perincek. It is also interesting to observe what Turkey will do regarding this court verdict.

Gündüz Aktan,in Opinion & Editorials, 12 October 2006 in the Turkish Daily News here, said "the wisest thing we can do is to calmly wait for the enactment of the bill and then file a complaint against the French state at the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that the law is contrary to the freedom of expression cited in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

France would argue that the Armenian genocide did happen and invoke both French legal provisions and Articles 4 and 7 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) to justify the punishment of those denying the genocide.

We, in turn, would stress that according to Articles 6 and 9 of the genocide convention no case can be called genocide in the absence of a court decision to this effect. The European Court of Human Rights is not competent to deal with a case on whether a given incident constitutes genocide or not. So it has to accept our thesis. Our winning the case would constitute a big defeat for the Armenians".

Will this advice be heeded now by Turkey based on this court's conviction of Perincek on genocide denial?

GENEVA, March 9 (Reuters) - A Turkish politician was found guilty on Friday by a Swiss criminal court of denying that mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide, the first such conviction under Swiss law.

Dogu Perincek, head of the leftist-nationalist Turkish Workers' Party, called the Armenian genocide "an international lie" during a speech in the Swiss city of Lausanne in July 2005.

Judge Pierre-Henri Winzap sentenced him to a 90-day suspended jail term and fined him 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,461), in line with the prosecutor's request, the Swiss news agency ATS reported from the Lausanne criminal court.

Perincek, who submitted 90 kg (200 lb) of historical documents, argued there had been no genocide against Armenians, but there had been "reciprocal massacres".

The 65-year-old politician, whose party has no seats in the Turkish parliament, was convicted under a 1995 Swiss law which bans denying, belittling or justifying any genocide. The maximum penalty is three years.

Twelve Turks were acquitted of similar charges in 2001.

The case has further soured relations between neutral Switzerland and Turkey, which denies any genocide during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War One.

Armenia says around 1.5 million Armenians perished in the killings, while Turkey says the deaths were part of inter-ethnic fighting, disease and famine in which both sides suffered.

Ankara was incensed last year when France's parliament approved a bill that made it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. The bill did not become law.

The U.S. Congress is widely expected to back a resolution next month recognising the killings as genocide. The Bush administration is opposed to the move, fearing the impact on relations with its NATO ally.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.