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An
Istanbul court on Thursday ordered the cancellation
of a conference at which Turkish academics were
widely expected to challenge the official version of
events surrounding the mass slaughter of Armenians
during the Ottoman Empire. The ruling was condemned
by the country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the decision was
announced, Mr. Erdogan said the decision did not
conform to what he called freedom and modernity in
Turkey. He said the right to free speech was an
essential part of democracy.
Some Western diplomats said forces within the state
that are opposed to Turkey's membership in the
European Union had probably influenced the ruling.
Turkey is scheduled to start negotiations over the
accession treaty with the European bloc on October
3.
Last month, another Istanbul court opened a case
against Orhan Pamuk the internationally acclaimed
Turkish author. He is due to appear in court on
December 16 on charges of insulting Turkey's
national dignity by telling a Swiss newspaper that
one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds had been
killed in Turkey and that nobody dared to say so. EU
enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn warned Turkey
earlier this month that if Mr. Pamuk were convicted,
this could constitute grounds for suspending
negotiations with Turkey.
Turkey has always denied that more than one million
members of the Ottoman Empire's once thriving
Armenian community were the victims of genocide
during and after World War I.
The conference titled "Ottoman Armenians of an
Empire in Decline" was to have opened Friday at the
Bosporus University in Istanbul. It was originally
scheduled to take place in May but was postponed
after Turkish Justice Minister said its purpose was
to stab Turkey in the back.
That is because some of the participating academics
were expected to challenge the official line that
several hundred thousand Armenians had died as a
result of disease and exposure and not because of
any state conspiracy to kill them.
The case to halt the conference was brought by the
Turkish Lawyers Union and other lawyers. The details
of their complaint were not made immediately clear.
The hosts of the conference said they will appeal
the decision and are determined to proceed with
their work in the coming days.
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