SWITZERLAND DETAINS TURKISH POLITICIAN FOR DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
SWITZERLAND DETAINS TURKISH POLITICIAN FOR DENYING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
In recent years, tensions have been steadily mounting
between Switzerland and Turkey following the adoption of
resolutions recognizing the Armenian Genocide by various Swiss
cities, cantons (states) and the Federal Parliament. Visits by
government ministers and parliamentary groups have been
postponed or cancelled and economic/political relations have
been adversely affected.
A new dispute between the two countries flared up this past
weekend when a large number of Turks from several European
countries and Turkey arrived in Switzerland to celebrate the
82nd anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne which marked the
foundation of the Turkish Republic and reversed the ceding of
lands to various nationalities, including the Armenians, as
mandated three years earlier by the Treaty of Sevres.
Among the dignitaries expected to travel to Switzerland on
this occasion were Rauf Denktash, Former President of
Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu, Chairman
of the Turkish History Foundation, Dogu Perincek, Chairman of
the Workers' Party in Turkey, and several other well-known
revisionists of the Armenian Genocide, including Gunduz Aktan,
former member of the infamous Turkish Armenian Reconciliation
Commission, Dr. Hikmet Ozdemir, Head of the Armenian Studies
Department of the Turkish History Foundation, and Sukru Elekdag,
former Turkish Ambassador to the United States.
At the last minute, Dr. Halacoglu had second thoughts and
decided not to travel to Switzerland. He told the Turkish media
that he was concerned about "possible provocations" against him,
as he had been summoned by a Swiss Court for having questioned
the veracity of the Armenian Genocide in remarks made on May 4,
2004, in Winterthur, in violation of Swiss law which prohibits
the denial, belittling or justifying of genocide. It is not
known if Aktan, Elekdag and Ozdemir ended up going to
Switzerland. They may have also changed their travel plans to
avoid similar legal action against them.
Dogu Perincek did go, however, only to get himself in legal
trouble with the Swiss authorities. He had already made
denialist statements on the Armenian Genocide during a previous
visit to Lausanne and Bern on May 7, 2005. The Swiss-Armenia
Association alerted the Swiss authorities on July 15, 2005 that
he and other Turkish denialists were about to enter the country
with the intent of breaking Swiss laws once again.
Last Saturday, after Perincek told reporters in Winterthur
that "the Armenian Genocide is an international lie," he was
detained and questioned for several hours by the public
prosecutor. Winterthur police spokesman Werner Benz was quoted
as saying that Perincek was interrogated for denying the
Armenian Genocide. A criminal probe was launched against him as
he is suspected of violating Swiss anti-racism laws. During his
questioning, he was accompanied by two Turkish lawyers and
diplomats representing the Turkish Embassy in Bern.
Following his conditional release, Perincek bragged about
his confrontation with the Swiss prosecutor. He boldly repeated
the same lies about the Armenian Genocide the next day in
Lausanne, even though he was warned by the Winterthur public
prosecutor not to make similar denialist statements in future
public appearances in Switzerland. Following his remarks, the
public prosecutor in Lausanne requested that Perincek appear in
front of him to be interrogated at a later date.
While Perincek was gloating over the fact that he had
defended the honor of Turkey in Switzerland, little did he
realize that he was inadvertently helping publicize the Armenian
Genocide. Thanks to Perincek's misguided efforts, newspapers,
wire services and TV stations around the world printed and aired
hundreds of news items in dozens of languages. No amount of
money spent by Armenians could have bought this kind of
international publicity for the Armenian Genocide.
To make matters worse for the Turks, the Foreign Minister
of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, issued a statement condemning the Swiss
authorities for detaining Perincek. He thereby helped generate
even more publicity for the Armenian Genocide in the
international media. As the official of an autocratic state, Gul
put himself in the ridiculous position of lecturing the Swiss
authorities on "respecting the principle of freedom." He
threatened that Turkey would take necessary steps in light of
further assessments of the situation. "We became involved the
minute we heard that Perincek had been taken to the prosecutor's
office for questioning. Our Consul in Zurich, Mehmet Emre, has
been with Perincek every step along the way. Our Ambassador in
Bern, Alev Kilic, has been keeping me up to date on all of the
developments. And I have been keeping the Prime Minister up to
date through the night. It is simply not possible for us to
accept this being done to a Turkish leader of a political
party," Gul said.
After such around the clock monitoring of the situation,
Armenians would hope that Gul would carry out his threats and
take retaliatory steps against Switzerland, thereby further
antagonizing the Swiss against Turkey. The additional political
fireworks would result in even more media coverage of the
Armenian Genocide.
While pretending to defend the principles of freedom and
coming to the rescue of a fellow Turk, Gul may not have paid
sufficient attention to the fact that he was actually supporting
one of the most dubious characters in Turkish politics. A Turkish
journalist, who was in Lausanne covering the event, was quoted
by the Swiss "24 Heures" as saying that he deplored the
"extremist" speeches delivered on that day. He said that Dogu
Perincek had very few followers in Turkey. The Swiss paper also
reported that even some Turks were keeping their distance from
the events in Lausanne.
Who actually is Dogu Perincek? He is the Chairman of a
minor leftist party. The State Department reported that he
"served 11 months in prison on a sentence for illegal possession
of classified state documents, assisting a terrorist
organization, and possession of unlicensed firearms." He was
subsequently "acquitted on charges of assisting the PKK and
possessing secret state documents."
According to Mehmet Ali Birand, a prominent Turkish
journalist, Perincek's party received less than 1% of the votes in
the last elections. Furthermore, Birand states that Perincek has
written in his book on Kemalism that there were "fascistic
practices during the Ataturk era." Perincek has referred to the
Turkish Armed Forces "as a fascistic army," according to Birand.
Does Gul share Perincek's views on Ataturk's fascistic rule and
the fascistic army? Birand writes that "in many of his speeches
Perincek likened Ataturk…to Milosevic and Saddam."
Furthermore, Birand states that Perincek called Rauf
Denktash, the former President of Turkish-occupied Northern
Cyprus, "a British collaborator." Perincek now hails Denktash as
a national hero and accompanied him "to celebrate the Turkish
victory at Lausanne." According to the Kurdistan Observer,
before becoming a Kemalist, Perincek was a Maoist.
It is simply amazing that the likes of Perincek and Gul
dare to open their mouths and give a country like Switzerland
lessons in democracy and freedom of speech. Nevertheless, the
more they talk, the more they disgrace themselves and the more
they provide free publicity for the Armenian Cause.
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