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SWISS COURT CONVICTS TURKISH POLITICIAN
PRESS TV, Iran
March 10 2007
A Swiss court has convicted a Turkish politician of racial
discrimination for denying that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey
in 1915 amounted to genocide.
Nationalist leader Dogu Perincek, 65, was on trial for remarks he
made in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005. He was given a suspended
sentence and fined $2,450, BBC reported.
The Swiss parliament has labeled the killings as genocide. Turkey
firmly rejects the genocide allegation.
Perincek, the head of the Turkish Workers' Party, has disputed the
charges. "I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide,"
he told the court earlier this week.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by
Ottoman Turks during World War I, either through systematic massacres
or through starvation.
Turkey says there was no genocide. It acknowledges that many Armenians
died, but says the figure was below one million.
A law criminalizing the denial of genocide was adopted in 2003 by
the parliament in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where Perincek made
his remarks.
Twelve Turks prosecuted in Switzerland on similar charges in 2001
were acquitted.
PRESS TV, Iran
March 10 2007
A Swiss court has convicted a Turkish politician of racial
discrimination for denying that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey
in 1915 amounted to genocide.
Nationalist leader Dogu Perincek, 65, was on trial for remarks he
made in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005. He was given a suspended
sentence and fined $2,450, BBC reported.
The Swiss parliament has labeled the killings as genocide. Turkey
firmly rejects the genocide allegation.
Perincek, the head of the Turkish Workers' Party, has disputed the
charges. "I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide,"
he told the court earlier this week.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by
Ottoman Turks during World War I, either through systematic massacres
or through starvation.
Turkey says there was no genocide. It acknowledges that many Armenians
died, but says the figure was below one million.
A law criminalizing the denial of genocide was adopted in 2003 by
the parliament in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where Perincek made
his remarks.
Twelve Turks prosecuted in Switzerland on similar charges in 2001
were acquitted.