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ANKARA: Dutch Schools Pressure Turkish Students to Recognize Claims

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  • ANKARA: Dutch Schools Pressure Turkish Students to Recognize Claims

    Journal of Turkish Weekly
    Oct 13 2006

    Dutch Schools Pressure Turkish Students to Recognize Armenian Claims

    Friday , 13 October 2006


    After three Turkish candidates were expelled from their political
    parties in the Netherlands for refusing to accept the Armenian
    genocide allegations, the Dutch universities are pressuring Turkish
    students to accept the Armenian genocide claims. The Turkis societies
    consider the pressures as anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim campaign.

    Arman Sag, a student at the Utrecht University department of
    Turcology and a spokesman for Turkish students in the Netherlands,
    said they were facing obstacles for rejecting the genocide.

    Sag said they had been called neo-Nazis by their teachers, noting:

    `Our education is being hindered here. There is freedom of thought. I
    did my research and found that Armenians had not been subject to
    genocide. This is my opinion and nobody can accuse me of this. We
    will always support freedom of thought. We condemn anti-Turkish
    prejudice. Such incidences attempt to invoke enmity against Turks.'

    Law student Gamze Arikan called the move an attack on human rights,
    while Tilburg University student Fatih Kulaksizoglu said: `We condemn
    antidemocratic policies imposed on us. We will never recognize the
    Armenian genocide.'

    Another Turkish student, Guven Alkilic, expressed that the Turkish
    community had been deeply disappointed by the dismissal of Turkish
    candidates from their parties.

    `By expelling Turkish candidates, Dutch political parties have not
    only attacked Turkish society's freedom of thought and expression but
    also democracy. This move implies that they favor puppet MPs that
    will approve whatever they say.'

    More than 450.000 Turkish people live in the Netherlands and they
    have almost no representative in the Dutch political system. The
    decision to remove the Turkish names from the party lists increased
    the mistrust among the Turkish people in Netherlands towards the
    State and Duch institutions.
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