123) Turks Taken to Swiss Court for Saying "No Genocide."

 

A new tactic by Armenians is to harass those who oppose their views by taking them to court... in European countries that have enacted anti-racism laws stemming from the Holocaust.  They tried to intimidate Professor Bernard Lewis by suing him in such a manner (the historian was fined one franc, or twenty-five cents), and it looks like they were at it again in Switzerland. The Armenians lost the case.

 

What an insidious way to try and stifle freedom of expression. What are they afraid of?

 

If the Armenians really want to take the "genocide" issue to court, why don't they try the World Court? What are they afraid of?

 

 

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - After an unprecedented trial, a Swiss court on Friday cleared prominent Turkish organizations of charges that they violated racial discrimination laws by disputing the World War I era genocide of Armenians.

 

The case was based on Switzerland's 1995 anti-racism law, which makes it a criminal offense to ``deny, grossly minimize or seek to justify genocide or other crimes against humanity.'' Until now it was used only against those denying the Nazi Holocaust.

 

A Swiss-Armenian association filed a criminal complaint in 1997, objecting to a letter by Turkish associations that said the "analogy between the (Nazi) Holocaust and the displacement of the Armenian population has no basis.''

 

"It is not possible to talk about 'genocide' when the Ottoman government never intended to 'exterminate' the Armenians,'' said the letter, drafted by a coordinating body of Swiss-based Turkish organizations.

 

The Turkish letter, to members of the Swiss parliament, was in response to a petition by the Armenian community urging Switzerland to recognize as genocide the killing of more than a million Armenians during and after World War I.

 

Court president Lienhard Ochsner dismissed the case for lack of subjective evidence and said there was no sign the Turks knowingly breached the anti-racism law. The letter was merely an attempt to voice the opinion of the Turkish community in Switzerland, he ruled.

 

"They wanted to preserve the untarnished image of their homeland,'' Ochsner said.

 

 

By GORDANA MIJUK, Associated Press Writer
Friday September 14 12:17 PM ET

 

Thanks to armenianreality.com

 "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear"
George Orwell
  

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