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Swiss Drop Genocide Probe Against Turkish Minister

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  • Swiss Drop Genocide Probe Against Turkish Minister

    SWISS DROP GENOCIDE PROBE AGAINST TURKISH MINISTER

    Expatica
    http://www.expatica.com/ch/news/swiss-news/swiss-drop-genocide-probe-against-turkish-minister_219209.html
    April 2 2012
    Switzerland

    Swiss prosecutors said Monday they would drop a probe into alleged
    remarks by Turkey's EU affairs minister denying the Armenian genocide,
    as the official enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

    "After consultations with the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs,
    prosecutors of canton Zurich came to the conclusion that no criminal
    proceedings would be opened against Egemen Bagis, because as a Turkish
    EU minister he enjoyed immunity during his entire stay in Switzerland,"
    said prosecutors in a statement.

    Denial of the Armenian genocide is a crime under Swiss anti-racism
    laws.

    Bagis reportedly made the comments to a journalist during a visit to
    Zurich after attending the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in
    end-January in Davos.

    According to Turkey's English-language newspaper Today's Zaman, he
    was asked about his views on a newly-adopted French bill criminalizing
    denial of the Armenian genocide and responded: "Switzerland is another
    country where it is a crime to deny the so-called genocide".

    "Here I am in Switzerland today, and I'm saying the 1915 incidents
    did not amount to genocide. Let them come arrest me."

    The paper said a complaint had been filed by members of Switzerland's
    Armenian community.

    Armenia says that planned massacres and deportations under the Ottoman
    Empire left more than 1.5 million of its people dead in 1915, but
    Turkey maintains there was no genocide, saying there were no more
    than 500,000 fatalities as a result of civil strife and the impact
    of World War I.

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