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Turk convicted of genocide denial
Swiss court fines leader of Turkish Workers' Party for denying Armenian genocide.
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2007 15:56 GMT
Perincek called the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 "an international lie" [AFP]  
A court in Switzerland has found Dogu Perincek, head of the Turkish Workers' Party, guilty of denying that mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide.

Perincek was given a 90-day suspended jail sentence and fined 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,461) on Friday in the first such conviction in the country.
The 65-year-old politician, whose party has no seats in the Turkish parliament, called the Armenian genocide "an international lie" during a speech in the Swiss city of Lausanne in July 2005.

He was convicted under a 1995 law which bans denying, belittling or justifying any genocide.
Perincek, who submitted 90kg of historical documents in his defence, argued there had been no genocide against the Armenians, but that there had been "reciprocal massacres".

Armenian deaths

Armenia says about 1.5 million Armenians died in the killings, while Turkey says the deaths were the result of inter-ethnic fighting, disease and famine in which both sides suffered.

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"If a country has deliberately planned and carried out genocide, it should be responsible for its acts."

Adolfo Talpalar, Stockholm, Sweden

 

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"This decision that was taken by the tribunal ... is a racist decision, an imperialist decision. This decision is against our country our history and our nation," Memet Bedri, vice-president of the Turkish Workers' Party, told Al Jazeera.

It was the first time that Switzerland's 1995 anti-racism law has been applied to the massacre of Armenians, Doris Angst of Switzerland's official anti-racism watchdog, said.

Tamar Hacoyan of Switzerland's Armenian association, welcomed the court's verdict.

"We feel very relieved with this decision because this is the first time, at a world level, that a court has decided that the Armenian genocide is without doubt," she said.
  
In 2001, a court in the capital Bern acquitted 12 Turks facing similar charges.
  
However, two years later the Swiss lower house of parliament formally recognised the massacre of Armenians during the First World War as  genocide, despite fierce protests from Turkey.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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