Swiss authorities arrest two Turks for denying Armenian ‘genocide’

02.07.2007
Today's Zaman with AP Ankara

Two Turks were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of breaking Swiss anti-racism laws for allegedly denying that the killing of Anatolian Armenians in the early 20th century was "genocide," police said.

The two were arrested on Saturday at a conference in the Zurich suburb of Winterthur, where posters were hung up and leaflets distributed rejecting that the killing was genocide. One of the Turks organized the event and the other was shouting slogans before a crowd.
Switzerland's anti-racism legislation, which previously applied to Holocaust denial, was used earlier this year to prosecute a Turkish politician for denying at a gathering in 2005 that the Turks committed "genocide" in the World War I-era killings.

Last week, a Swiss cantonal court upheld the conviction against Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the neo-nationalist Turkish Workers' Party (İP). The case of Perinçek has caused diplomatic tension between Switzerland and Turkey. Ankara has called the case against Perinçek "inappropriate, baseless and debatable in every circumstance."

Perinçek was invited to Saturday's conference, but was prevented from entering Switzerland because he had not applied for a visa, said Dominique Boillat, spokesman for the Federal Office for Migration. Police in the canton (state) of Zurich identified the two arrested individuals as a 57-year-old resident of Germany and a 51-year-old Swiss resident.

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