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Provo Daily Herald, UTAH
Sept 25 2005
Conference on mass killings opens in Turkey
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- A controversial conference on the mass killings
of ethnic Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire opened
here amid heavy security Saturday in defiance of a court ban.
The forum was hailed by participants and Western observers as a
groundbreaking event where Turkish academics for the first time
publicly could challenge their country's official version of the
events leading to the Armenian tragedy.
Hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags pelted the arriving
panelists with eggs and rotten tomatoes, expressing the fury felt by
many Turks over efforts to open their country's painful past to
debate. "The aim (of the conference) . . . is to declare Turkey
guilty of genocide," said Erkan Onsel, head of the local branch of
the small, left-wing Turkey's Workers' Party.
The conference was canceled twice before, most recently on Thursday,
when an Istanbul court ruled in favor of a group of lawyers who
opposed the gathering on procedural grounds.
Sept 25 2005
Conference on mass killings opens in Turkey
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- A controversial conference on the mass killings
of ethnic Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire opened
here amid heavy security Saturday in defiance of a court ban.
The forum was hailed by participants and Western observers as a
groundbreaking event where Turkish academics for the first time
publicly could challenge their country's official version of the
events leading to the Armenian tragedy.
Hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags pelted the arriving
panelists with eggs and rotten tomatoes, expressing the fury felt by
many Turks over efforts to open their country's painful past to
debate. "The aim (of the conference) . . . is to declare Turkey
guilty of genocide," said Erkan Onsel, head of the local branch of
the small, left-wing Turkey's Workers' Party.
The conference was canceled twice before, most recently on Thursday,
when an Istanbul court ruled in favor of a group of lawyers who
opposed the gathering on procedural grounds.