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Turks Can Be Tried For Armenian Massacre Apology - Report

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  • Turks Can Be Tried For Armenian Massacre Apology - Report

    TURKS CAN BE TRIED FOR ARMENIAN MASSACRE APOLOGY - REPORT

    EasyBourse.com
    March 2 2009

    ANKARA (AFP)--A Turkish court ruled Monday that criminal proceedings
    could be launched against the authors and signatories of a petition
    that apologizes to Armenians for 1915-17 massacres under the Ottoman
    Empire.

    The decision by the court in Sincan, on the outskirts of Ankara,
    repeals a Jan. 26 ruling by the prosecutor general that bringing
    charges would impinge on freedom of speech laws, the Anatolia news
    agency said.

    Criminal proceedings can now be launched against the organizers of the
    Internet petition, which was launched on Dec. 15, and the subsequent
    29,000 signatories, Turkish media reported.

    The petition states that signatories regret "that we remain indifferent
    to the Great Catastrophe that Ottoman Armenians endured...and that
    we deny," and offers apologies.

    Armenia and Turkey offer starkly different accounts of the events,
    and the dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between the
    two countries.

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million people died between 1915 and 1917 in
    orchestrated killings as the Ottoman Empire fell apart. More than 20
    countries have recognized the killings as genocide.

    Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that between 300,000
    and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
    when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and
    sided with invading Russian troops.

    The petition, which does not use the term "genocide" to describe the
    massacres, has been signed by more than 29,000 people, among them
    intellectuals and artists.

    A probe was launched in January after several Ankara residents filed a
    complaint asking for those involved with the petition to be punished
    for "openly denigrating the Turkish nation", an offense that carries
    two years in prison.

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