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[Adventurer]

Last Updated: Tuesday, 6 March 2007, 17:28 GMT

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Swiss 'genocide' trial for Turk

Dogu Perincek's case risks straining Swiss-Turkish relations
A Turkish nationalist leader has gone on trial in Switzerland for denying that the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 amounted to "genocide".
Dogu Perincek, 65, is accused under Swiss law of racial discrimination.

The Swiss parliament, along with more than a dozen countries, recognises the killings as "genocide". Turkey firmly rejects the "genocide" allegation.

The prosecutor in the city of Lausanne called for a six-month jail sentence for genocide denial.

Dogu Perincek, head of the Turkish Workers' Party, made the statements in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6424025.stm

[I don't understand how some European countries prosecute people because they don't believe a genocide happened. That is basically prosecuting people for being ignorant about a past tragedy.]

[Woland]

Perincek is a fringe player in Turkish politics, sort of a Lyndon LaRouche type figure, but a bit more of a weather vane. For him, this is good PR in a time of rising nationalist sentiment, and that's why he did it.

Free speech, regardless how offensive, should be defended. Prosecuting people like Perincek just encourages their martyr complexes.