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Swiss convict Turk of denying Armenian
genocide
9.3.2007 |
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March 9, 2007
GENEVA, March 9 ,- A Turkish politician was
found guilty on Friday by a Swiss criminal court of
denying that mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide, the first such
conviction under Swiss law.
Dogu Perincek, head of the leftist-nationalist
Turkish Workers' Party, called the Armenian genocide
"an international lie" during a speech in the Swiss
city of Lausanne in July 2005.
Judge Pierre-Henri Winzap sentenced him to a 90-day
suspended jail term and fined him 3,000 Swiss francs
($2,461), in line with the prosecutor's request, the
Swiss news agency ATS reported from the Lausanne
criminal court.
Perincek, who submitted 90 kg (200 lb) of historical
documents, argued there had been no genocide against
Armenians, but there had been "reciprocal
massacres".
The 65-year-old politician, whose party has no seats
in the Turkish parliament, was convicted under a
1995 Swiss law which bans denying, belittling or
justifying any genocide. The maximum penalty is
three years.
Twelve Turks were acquitted of similar charges in
2001.
The case has further soured relations between
neutral Switzerland and Turkey, which denies any
genocide during the disintegration of the Ottoman
Empire in World War One.
Armenia says around 1.5 million Armenians perished
in the killings, while Turkey says the deaths were
part of inter-ethnic fighting, disease and famine in
which both sides suffered.
Ankara was incensed last year when France's
parliament approved a bill that made it a crime to
deny the Armenian genocide. The bill did not become
law.
The U.S. Congress is widely expected to back a
resolution next month recognising the killings as
genocide. The Bush administration is opposed to the
move, fearing the impact on relations with its NATO
ally.
Reuters
* 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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