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Al-Akhbar, Lebanon
Jan 29 2015
Armenia Faces Turkey over Genocide Denial Case
by: Rana Harbi
A long-running battle over a Turkish man's denial of the Armenian
genocide returned to the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday.
A first-rate legal team, which included renowned human rights lawyers
Geoffrey Robertson and Amal Allamudin Clooney, as well as Armenia's
Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan, represented Armenia at the
appeals hearing on the court's ruling in 2013 in favor of a Turkish
Armenian genocide denier, in a case that is known as Perinçek v.
Switzerland.
Dogu Perinçek, chairman of the Turkish Workers' Party, was convicted
eight years ago in Switzerland for describing the Armenian genocide of
1915 as an "international lie."
He says that was an attack on his freedom of speech and the ECHR
agreed with him in a December 2013 ruling.
The Swiss authorities have appealed the decision, and have the backing
of Armenia, which says 1.5 million people were killed by Turkey's
Ottoman rulers.
Clooney said the court's 2013 decision "cast doubt on the reality of
genocide that Armenian people suffered a century ago."
She also slammed Turkey for hypocrisy, saying: "This court knows very
well how disgraceful Turkey's record on freedom of expression is."
Using both diplomatic levers and its influential diaspora abroad,
Armenia has long sought to win the massacre's international
recognition as a genocide.
On April 24, marking the 99th anniversary of the genocide, Armenian
President Serzh Sarkisian accused Turkey of an "utter denial" in
failing to recognize World War I mass killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire as a genocide.
"The Armenian Genocide... is alive as far as the successor of the
Ottoman Turkey continues its policy of utter denial," Sarkisian said
in a statement at the time.
Turkey rejects calls to recognize the killings as genocide, claiming
up to 500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after
Armenians sided with invading Russian troops. It alleges a comparable
number of Turks were also killed.
Lawyers for Perinçek and the Turkish government argue that the
Armenian genocide is not a matter of "general consensus" like the
Holocaust.
Perinçek "neither denied nor apologized for the massacres, nor did he
incite hatred against the Armenians," his lawyers argued, adding that
he only denied a "genocidal intent" on the part of the Ottoman
authorities who ruled Turkey at the time.
Turkey further argues that Perinçek's claims cannot possibly incite
hatred since there is no widespread hatred towards the Armenians.
The controversy continued outside court where some 600 Turkish
protesters had gathered, according to police, carrying Turkish flags
and portraits of the country's modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The crowd cheered Perinçek when he emerged from the court.
Around 20 Armenians stood on the other side of the road with one
placard reading: "No to denial -- Europe must react."
More than 20 countries have so far officially recognized the massacres
as genocide.
Hollande Urges Turkey to 'Break Taboos' on Armenia Killings
Meanwhile, French President François Hollande called on Turkey to take
new steps towards the "truth" behind the mass killings of Armenians a
century ago, saying "it is time to break the taboos."
"The effort towards the truth must continue and I am convinced that
this centenary year will see new gestures, new steps on the road to
recognition," Hollande said at a dinner with Armenian groups in Paris.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this month said he would
"actively" challenge a campaign to pressure Turkey to recognize the
massacres as genocide, though a year ago he offered an unprecedented
expression of condolences for the 1915-1916 killings.
Recalling Erdogan's stance last year, Hollande told members of
France's Armenian community, the biggest in the European Union, that
Ankara's position "cannot stop there."
"It is time to break the taboos and for the two nations, Armenia and
Turkey, to create a new beginning," he said.
Earlier in January, a poll revealed that only 9.1 percent of the Turks
questioned believed their government should recognize the mass
killings of Armenians as a genocide.
Four years into the Syrian civil war, Armenians of different
denominations -- Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical -- have received
their share of suffering, murder, kidnapping, and displacement because
of the conflict, just like the other Syrians.
The Syrian government consistently accused Turkey, a NATO member and
one of Washington's key allies in the region, of playing a major role
in fueling the armed crisis in Syria by opening its borders and
allowing free access to foreign jihadists into Syria.
Damascus has repeatedly accused Turkey of harboring, financing,
training, and arming militants since violence erupted in March 2011.
The Armenian community was not spared from the systematic targeting of
ethnic and religious minorities by jihadist forces, such as the St.
Kevork Church in Aleppo, the Armenian Catholic Church in Raqqa, among
many other churches, schools and institutions.
The attack has forced at least 2,000 ethnic Armenian civilians to seek
refuge in Latakia and other neighboring hills. This situation further
highlights the systematic targeting of Christian communities in the
region.
(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar)
Jan 29 2015
Armenia Faces Turkey over Genocide Denial Case
by: Rana Harbi
A long-running battle over a Turkish man's denial of the Armenian
genocide returned to the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday.
A first-rate legal team, which included renowned human rights lawyers
Geoffrey Robertson and Amal Allamudin Clooney, as well as Armenia's
Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan, represented Armenia at the
appeals hearing on the court's ruling in 2013 in favor of a Turkish
Armenian genocide denier, in a case that is known as Perinçek v.
Switzerland.
Dogu Perinçek, chairman of the Turkish Workers' Party, was convicted
eight years ago in Switzerland for describing the Armenian genocide of
1915 as an "international lie."
He says that was an attack on his freedom of speech and the ECHR
agreed with him in a December 2013 ruling.
The Swiss authorities have appealed the decision, and have the backing
of Armenia, which says 1.5 million people were killed by Turkey's
Ottoman rulers.
Clooney said the court's 2013 decision "cast doubt on the reality of
genocide that Armenian people suffered a century ago."
She also slammed Turkey for hypocrisy, saying: "This court knows very
well how disgraceful Turkey's record on freedom of expression is."
Using both diplomatic levers and its influential diaspora abroad,
Armenia has long sought to win the massacre's international
recognition as a genocide.
On April 24, marking the 99th anniversary of the genocide, Armenian
President Serzh Sarkisian accused Turkey of an "utter denial" in
failing to recognize World War I mass killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire as a genocide.
"The Armenian Genocide... is alive as far as the successor of the
Ottoman Turkey continues its policy of utter denial," Sarkisian said
in a statement at the time.
Turkey rejects calls to recognize the killings as genocide, claiming
up to 500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after
Armenians sided with invading Russian troops. It alleges a comparable
number of Turks were also killed.
Lawyers for Perinçek and the Turkish government argue that the
Armenian genocide is not a matter of "general consensus" like the
Holocaust.
Perinçek "neither denied nor apologized for the massacres, nor did he
incite hatred against the Armenians," his lawyers argued, adding that
he only denied a "genocidal intent" on the part of the Ottoman
authorities who ruled Turkey at the time.
Turkey further argues that Perinçek's claims cannot possibly incite
hatred since there is no widespread hatred towards the Armenians.
The controversy continued outside court where some 600 Turkish
protesters had gathered, according to police, carrying Turkish flags
and portraits of the country's modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The crowd cheered Perinçek when he emerged from the court.
Around 20 Armenians stood on the other side of the road with one
placard reading: "No to denial -- Europe must react."
More than 20 countries have so far officially recognized the massacres
as genocide.
Hollande Urges Turkey to 'Break Taboos' on Armenia Killings
Meanwhile, French President François Hollande called on Turkey to take
new steps towards the "truth" behind the mass killings of Armenians a
century ago, saying "it is time to break the taboos."
"The effort towards the truth must continue and I am convinced that
this centenary year will see new gestures, new steps on the road to
recognition," Hollande said at a dinner with Armenian groups in Paris.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this month said he would
"actively" challenge a campaign to pressure Turkey to recognize the
massacres as genocide, though a year ago he offered an unprecedented
expression of condolences for the 1915-1916 killings.
Recalling Erdogan's stance last year, Hollande told members of
France's Armenian community, the biggest in the European Union, that
Ankara's position "cannot stop there."
"It is time to break the taboos and for the two nations, Armenia and
Turkey, to create a new beginning," he said.
Earlier in January, a poll revealed that only 9.1 percent of the Turks
questioned believed their government should recognize the mass
killings of Armenians as a genocide.
Four years into the Syrian civil war, Armenians of different
denominations -- Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical -- have received
their share of suffering, murder, kidnapping, and displacement because
of the conflict, just like the other Syrians.
The Syrian government consistently accused Turkey, a NATO member and
one of Washington's key allies in the region, of playing a major role
in fueling the armed crisis in Syria by opening its borders and
allowing free access to foreign jihadists into Syria.
Damascus has repeatedly accused Turkey of harboring, financing,
training, and arming militants since violence erupted in March 2011.
The Armenian community was not spared from the systematic targeting of
ethnic and religious minorities by jihadist forces, such as the St.
Kevork Church in Aleppo, the Armenian Catholic Church in Raqqa, among
many other churches, schools and institutions.
The attack has forced at least 2,000 ethnic Armenian civilians to seek
refuge in Latakia and other neighboring hills. This situation further
highlights the systematic targeting of Christian communities in the
region.
(Reuters, AFP, Al-Akhbar)