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ANKARA, May 26 (AFP) - 12h49 - Turkey came under
fire Thursday for halting a landmark conference
questioning the official line on the mass killings
of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, as European
Union diplomats warned that Ankara's democratic
credentials had taken a serious blow.
Istanbul's prestigious Bogazici University, where
the gathering was to open Wednesday, put off the
event after Justice Minister Cemil Cicek accused the
participants -- Turkish academics and intellectuals
who dispute Ankara's version of the 1915-1917
massacres -- of "treason."
Cicek condemned the initiative as "a stab in the
back to the Turkish nation" and said the organizers
deserved to be prosecuted.
The killings, one of the most controversial episodes
in Ottoman history, is rarely discussed in schools
and the aborted conference would have been the first
by Turkish personalities to question the official
stand on the events.
Several countries have recognized the massacres as
genocide -- a theory Turkey fiercely rejects -- and
Brussels has urged Ankara to face its past and
expand freedom of speech.
"The remarks of the justice minister are
unacceptable. This is an authoritarian approach
raising questions over Turkey's reform process," a
diplomat from an EU country told AFP on the
condition of anonymity.
"Now it is a real watershed. We expect government
action to correct Cicek's remarks," he said. "It's
up to the government to decide what to do. Doing
nothing would be also a choice, but certainly not in
favor of Turkey's EU membership prospects."
The incident follows a brutal police clampdown on a
women's demonstration in Istanbul in March, which
raised tensions between Turkey and the EU.
It also coincides with increasing criticism at home
that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
government, a conservative movement with Islamist
roots, has lost its reform drive since winning a
date in December for accession talks scheduled to
start on October 3.
Ankara is still under pressure to convince Brussels
of its commitment to the democratic reforms it has
undertaken.
Turkey's membership bid already faces strong public
opposition in many EU countries and anti-Turkish
sentiment is seen as a major factor in the widely
predicted rejection of the European constitution at
a critical referendum in France on Sunday.
Another EU diplomat regretted the postponement of
the conference because it "would have reflected the
evolution taking place in Turkish society."
The EU is looking forward for the conference to be
rescheduled, he said, adding: "The Europeans will
keep on insisting that civil society has a great
role to play in Turkey."
The Turkish media too lashed out at the justice
minister, saying his outburst cast a pall on freedom
of expression in the country and played into the
hands of a mounting Armenian campaign to have the
massacres recognized internationally as genocide.
"Zero tolerance to freedom," the Radikal daily
trumpeted on its front page, while Milliyet's
headline declared: "Democracy takes a blow."
"What, really, is treason? To hold a conference in
order to start a debate in Turkey on a Turkish
problem debated almost everywhere in the world, or
to brand as 'traitors' people who may think
differently at a time when Turkey is waging a battle
for democracy in the face of many obstacles?" wrote
columnist Murat Celikkan in Radikal.
"Cemil Cicek should resign as justice minister and
if does not, he should be forced to do so," he said.
AFP
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