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Swiss minister wants to legalise genocide
deniers
24.10.2006
Contribution: Vladimir van Wilgenburg, Journalist, Netherlands |
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BERN, October 23,
-- Switzerland's justice minister has called on the
Swiss government to reverse a law which makes
historical revisionism illegal.
Minister Christoph Blocher is on a campaign to
change the law, according to the Neue Zuercher
Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper – even if it will impinge
upon the sensitivities of minority groups, including
the country's Jewish communities.
Blocher claims that freedom of expression is more
important than protecting the sensibilities of
minority groups, NZZ wrote.
Blocher just returned from a trip to Turkey where a
public discussion of the Armenian genocide is de
facto punishable by a court of law. Upon his return
home, Blocher said that he believes that Swiss laws
needs to be a beacon for other nations. |
Swiss justice minister Christoph Blocher |
As far as the minister is concerned, a ban on free
speech in Turkey has made an effective public
discussion of the Armenian genocide and Kurdish
issues there impossible. In effect, he claims that
widening the possibilities for freedom of speech in
Switzerland might entice other countries to do the
same.
International relations
The minister, however, is also disgruntled because
he claims that such a law is an impediment on
Switzerland's relationship to other countries.
Article 261 of the Swiss criminal code punishes
genocide-denial. Currently, anybody is punishable in
Switzerland if they "deny, belittle, or relativise
genocide or crimes against humanity," NZZ wrote.
Because of this law, Swiss lawmakers who travel
abroad are required to discuss this topic with their
counterparts in those countries which have been
accused, by the global community, of genocide.
Blocher's trip to Turkey is a case in point. He
believes that his having been required to bring up
the topic of the Ottoman Empire's Armenian genocide
with his Turkish colleagues will have created
unnecessary friction during his meetings in the
Eurasian nation. However, the minister's failure to
guarantee that two Kurdish activists, held in
Switzerland would be extradited to Turkey has also
put a damper on Swiss-Turkish relations, in recent
years.
Holocaust denial
The minister is apparently very much aware that a
change in the law will only entice Holocaust deniers
to question the existence of gas chambers as well.
"I do not want that an opinion cannot be uttered
only because someone will be offended by it," the
minister said.
According to the minister, the definition of
genocide needs to be decided by historians. "A
debate on the subject, however, will have no basis
if diverse opinions are banned," he said.
According to NZZ, the minister made this very point
to his Turkish colleague, Justice Minister Cemil
Cicek. In response, Cicek told Blocher that Turkey
would allow an international historian commission to
research the topic of the Armenian genocide and
Kurdish matters.
The Turkish government had already announced its
intention to form a commission in the past. However,
no commission has been set up, to-date. Armenia and
Turkey do not hold diplomatic relations. The
Armenians fear that a Turkish commission would be
mostly composed of revisionist minded historians,
NZZ writes.
Although several of Blocher's meetings were strained
by the talk of the Armenian genocide, the minister
does believe that his meetings have "created a giant
step towards an improvement" in Switzerland's
diplomatic relationship to Turkey.
The reason for the two nations' extremely strained
relationship is Switzerland's blocking of a Turkish
request for the extradition of two activists of the
banned Kurdish Communist Party. The Kurds (Turkish
citizens) are protected under Swiss law because
their extradition to Turkey, which has historically
curbed Kurdish freedom of expression, is
contradictory to Swiss law – something that Blocher
would like to see changed.
During his trip to Ankara, Blocher did say that he
would make every effort to have the Swiss legal code
changed in order to make an extradition easier. In
other words, he hopes that the Turkish government
would eventually follow suit and allow the Kurdish
political opposition the opportunity to speak its
mind, publicly.
However, the extradition will certainly not happen
anytime soon – because not only would Swiss codes
need to be changed, via parliamentary propositions
and a general referendum. However, Turkish laws
would also need to be amended.
Most political parties have shown their dismay at
Blocher's proposal – in particular because the Swiss
law only went into effect in 1994 after years of
debate and compromise.
The Swiss Ombudsman against Racism, Georg Kreis,
told NZZ that Blocher's statements would make
everyone believe that the law places sole attention
on the Armenian genocide. Kreis went further to
criticise Blocher's promise to his Turkish
colleagues in regards to the Kurdish Communist
Party.
Blocher's visited Turkey in order to commemorate the
80th anniversary of the Eurasian country's civil
code which was modelled after that of Switzerland.
ejpress org
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
First world war
massacres | Related
issue:
Armenian Genocide by Turkish Muslims against
Christians
Turkey faces international pressure to recognise
that more than 1 million Armenians were massacred
during a 1915 campaign of ethnic cleansing by
Ottoman Turks. Turkish officials claim that most
deaths were caused by hunger and disease.
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