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ISTANBUL: Minister defends anti-Armenian remarks as `national respon

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  • ISTANBUL: Minister defends anti-Armenian remarks as `national respon

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    June 28 2012

    Turkish minister defends anti-Armenian remarks as `national response'


    28 June 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, Ä°STANBUL

    Education Minister Ã-mer Dinçer has thrown his support behind a book
    accused of hate speech against both Turkey's Armenians and
    non-Armenians who supported a campaign to apologize for the 1915
    deportation of Armenians, referring to it as a natural `national
    automatic response.'


    The District Governor's Office in Ä°stanbul was involved in a scandal
    earlier this year when it distributed a book titled `I Am Closing This
    File' to schools in the Kartal district. The book included
    inflammatory remarks targeting artists, intellectuals and writers who
    supported a petition offering an apology to Armenians for the 1915
    incident, which Armenia and the Armenia diaspora around the world
    claim amounts to genocide.

    The book referred to the signatories of the petition as of `bad
    blood,' `the devils among us' and similar phrases. Republican People's
    Party (CHP) Ä°stanbul deputy Gökmen Ã-Ä?üt recently submitted an inquiry
    to Parliament regarding the racist statements in the book, demanding a
    response from Minister Dinçer. The inquiry demanded to know whether
    the distribution of the book itself did not constitute a hate crime.

    Dinçer in his response claimed that the contents of the book amounted
    to a `humorous' musing on the Armenian issue arising from an automatic
    national response.

    However, an earlier statement from the Ministry of Education on the
    book admitted that it contained hateful statements targeting certain
    groups, and noted that it was likely to have adverse effects on young
    readers. The ministry had also launched an investigation into the
    claims that the book was being distributed free of charge.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/news-284906-turkish-minister-defends-anti-armenian-remarks-as-national-response.html

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