TURKISH ULTRANATIONALIST PARTY LEADER MEETS, AGREES TO CLOSE DIALOGUE WITH ASSAD
Cihan News Agency (CNA), Turkey
March 3, 2015 Tuesday
Ä°STANBUL (CÄ°HAN)- The leader of Turkey's ultranationalist Land
Party (VP), until recently known as the Workers' Party (Ä°P), met
with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.
Dogu Perincek, an ardent critic of the ruling Justice and Development
Party's (AK Party) Syria policy, often casts the intractable civil
war in Syria as a fight between Damascus and global imperialist powers.
Assad received Perincek and his accompanying group at the presidential
palace in Damascus. Following the meeting, which lasted nearly two
hours, both Perincek and Assad agreed to work in close cooperation
and dialogue to ensure the territorial integrity of both countries.
"Disintegration of Syria means disintegration of Turkey," said Assad
after the meeting, according to a news report by the Dogan news agency
on Tuesday. Assad concluded that Turks and Syrians, not others outside
the region, must decide their own future.
Perincek believes the Syrian government fights against global
imperialist powers, therefore deserves support.
Perincek was accompanied on his visit to Syria by, among others, Birgul
Ayman Guler, who recently resigned from the Republican People's Party
(CHP), and former Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Å~^ener, who was
a founder and former member of the AK Party.
Perincek was in the spotlight after being convicted by a Swiss court
for calling claims of an Armenian genocide an "international lie"
during a series of speeches he delivered in Switzerland in 2007.
Perincek brought the case to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR), which ruled in favor of the Turkish politician on Dec. 17,
2013, saying that the VP leader had exercised his "right to free
speech." In late January, the ECtHR began hearing an appeal filed by
the Swiss government against Perincek.
His original conviction centered on his denial of claims that 1.5
million Armenians were killed in the final years of the Ottoman Empire
in a systematic campaign of genocide, a claim categorically denied
by Turkey.
From: A. Papazian
Cihan News Agency (CNA), Turkey
March 3, 2015 Tuesday
Ä°STANBUL (CÄ°HAN)- The leader of Turkey's ultranationalist Land
Party (VP), until recently known as the Workers' Party (Ä°P), met
with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.
Dogu Perincek, an ardent critic of the ruling Justice and Development
Party's (AK Party) Syria policy, often casts the intractable civil
war in Syria as a fight between Damascus and global imperialist powers.
Assad received Perincek and his accompanying group at the presidential
palace in Damascus. Following the meeting, which lasted nearly two
hours, both Perincek and Assad agreed to work in close cooperation
and dialogue to ensure the territorial integrity of both countries.
"Disintegration of Syria means disintegration of Turkey," said Assad
after the meeting, according to a news report by the Dogan news agency
on Tuesday. Assad concluded that Turks and Syrians, not others outside
the region, must decide their own future.
Perincek believes the Syrian government fights against global
imperialist powers, therefore deserves support.
Perincek was accompanied on his visit to Syria by, among others, Birgul
Ayman Guler, who recently resigned from the Republican People's Party
(CHP), and former Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Å~^ener, who was
a founder and former member of the AK Party.
Perincek was in the spotlight after being convicted by a Swiss court
for calling claims of an Armenian genocide an "international lie"
during a series of speeches he delivered in Switzerland in 2007.
Perincek brought the case to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR), which ruled in favor of the Turkish politician on Dec. 17,
2013, saying that the VP leader had exercised his "right to free
speech." In late January, the ECtHR began hearing an appeal filed by
the Swiss government against Perincek.
His original conviction centered on his denial of claims that 1.5
million Armenians were killed in the final years of the Ottoman Empire
in a systematic campaign of genocide, a claim categorically denied
by Turkey.
From: A. Papazian